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The continent of Africa was a victim of European imperialism, especially in the 19th century. During the 20th century, especially after World War II, that continent experienced independence from those imperial powers (e.g., Britain, France, Portugal and Germany). Today, a new kind of imperialism is coming to Africa, but in a soft, subtle manner: It is the imperialism of China, but one would never sense that it is imperialism. Let me explain.
This past weekend, 3-5 November 2006, 48 of the 53 African countries, including 40 heads of state, attended a huge diplomatic event, the China-African forum in Beijing, China. The official purposes of this three-day event were to expand trade, to allow China to secure oil and ore it needs for its booming economy and to offer aid to help African nations improve roads, railways and schools. As Joseph Kahn has written, “The unofficial purpose is to redraw the world’s strategic map by forming tighter political ties between China and Africa. . . Africans see China as a new kind of global partner that has lots of money but treats them as equals.” China is clever and shrewd in its courting of Africa. It has embraced leaders of Sudan and Zimbabwe, two countries that are under heavy pressure to improve their poor human rights records. China courts, strokes and affirms African leaders, despite their dismal human rights record.
China’s obvious economic goal is to secure Africa’s abundant supplies of oil, iron ore, copper and cotton at the lowest possible prices. China views Africa as an open market, neglected by Western multinational corporations. The goal is clearly mercenary, but the method is soft, deferential and avowedly anti-imperialistic—at least on the surface. Therefore the theme of the forum was “Peace, Friendship, Cooperation, Development.” China is clearly pledging that it will not discriminate nor will it intervene. China also seeks to court Africa because it is a powerful voting bloc in the UN and other international agencies. Further, China’s trade with Africa is growing faster than with any other region except the middle East, increasing tenfold in the past decade, to just shy of $40 billion last year. China has aggressively pursued commodities and accompanied that pursuit with generous aid programs, low-interest loans and other gifts that the US and other Western governments say undermine efforts to promote good government in the African countries. China has even gone to the extreme of threatening to veto any punitive action against the most egregious violators of human rights—Zimbabwe and Sudan. In short, China is committed to engaging the African countries on their own terms. Weran Jiang, a political scientist from the University of Alberta, argues that “from China’s perspective the Western powers and Western companies have had their chance in Africa and really nothing has happened. China is trying a different approach. It is saying, ‘Let us have a chance.’”
As China courts Africa, it is doing so for its own selfish ends and it does so at the expense of the United States and the other Western powers. It is a new form of imperialism that reconciles the idiosyncrasies of Africa, while it seeks to exploit its oil and mineral riches for the Chinese economy. This is not a good development for the US.
See Joseph Kahn in the New York Times (3 November 2006). |
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