A new Action Aid report exposes footdragging by the G8 in implementing last year's Gleneagles agreement. Should we therefore celebrate growing Chinese influence in an African continent which stands to gain from a powerful rival to Western interests? An editorial in Le Monde suggests caution
Will we see Africa firmly anchored in the Chinese orbit within the next ten years? The question seems far fetched, but it is being taken increasingly seriously by alarmed Western strategists. Since the end of the 1990s Chinese penetration in Africa has been spectacular, and the Beijing leadership continues to give it very high priority. In the space of two months the Chinese president Hu Jintao, and prime minister Wen Jiabao, have made high profile visits: in April Hu took in Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya, while Wen is in the final stages of a tour which will have included Egypt, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The charm offensive is sustained and methodical.
The Chinese are not there to preach world revolution. That is a thing of the past, as is the messianic ideology which governed Chinese diplomacy at the time of “anti-imperialist struggle” and rivalry with the Soviet Union. The period of intense competition for influence with Taiwan - which maintained a handful of African clients - has also ended, with South Africa and Senegal having allowed themselves to be wooed by the People's Republic. Today it is a crude, some would say cynical, pragmatism which drives Chinese policy.
Just like the West, China covets the rich resources of the African continent. Its purchases of oil, manganese, cotton and other primary materials are enormous, while in return it exports a growing flood of Chinese-made goods, much appreciated by African consumers with their modest purchasing power. Trade which already tripled from 2001 to 2004 is now growing exponentially.
Though Western powers are poorly placed to criticise the rising influence of Beijing over a continent where they themselves have shown such remarkable cynicism, this inexorable sinification of Africa nonetheless does give rise to legitimate concerns. The Chinese leaders burden themselves with few scruples in pursuing a strategy whose purpose is to fuel the economic machine of the Middle Kingdom. In the guise of an anti-colonialist rhetoric which continues to resonate powerfully in African capitals, they have made “non-interference in internal affairs” their cardinal diplomatic principle, something greatly to the liking of corrupt and repressive governments.
It is far less clear what the African victims of these governments have to gain. The dubious friendship between China and Zimbabwe borders on caricature. In a gesture intended to improve its predatory image, Beijing has funded the African Union force in Darfur.
It is time China showed as much concern for Africans as for their leaders.
Published in Le Monde 24th June 2006
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