How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ied/article.do
Quote:
Reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries - but on a much more dramatic, determined scale - China's rulers believe Africa can become a 'satellite' state, solving its own problems of over-population and shortage of natural resources at a stroke.
With little fanfare, a staggering 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. More are on the way.
The strategy has been carefully devised by officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually need to send 300 million people to Africa to solve the problems of over-population and pollution.
The plans appear on track. Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. New embassies and air routes are opening up. The continent's new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere, shopping at their own expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW limousines, sending their children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered with Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese goods. More than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are crisscrossing the continent, carrying billions of tons of illegally-logged timber, diamonds and gold.
The trains are linked to ports dotted around the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after unloading cargoes of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded Chinese 'cultural centres') have sprung up throughout Africa, as far afield as the tiny land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Massive dams are being built, flooding nature reserves. The land is scarred with giant Chinese mines, with 'slave' labourers paid less than £1 a day to extract ore and minerals.
Pristine forests are being destroyed, with China taking up to 70 per cent of all timber from Africa.
All over this great continent, the Chinese presence is swelling into a flood. Angola has its own 'Chinatown', as do great African cities such as Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.
Exclusive, gated compounds, serving only Chinese food, and where no blacks are allowed, are being built all over the continent. 'African cloths' sold in markets on the continent are now almost always imported, bearing the legend: 'Made in China'.
From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower's long-term survival.
'The Chinese are all over the place,' says Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman with publishing interests around the continent. 'If the British were our masters yesterday, the Chinese have taken their place.'
China introduced to Congolese Business Practices - 2 years later...
Kinshasa's Missing Millions -
Quote:
Evidence of Grand Corruption Mounts in
Beijing's Showcase $6 billion Barter Deal with the Kinshasa Government
Over US $23 million in signature bonuses payable on China's $6 billion Sino-Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines) deal with the Kinshasa government have been stolen according to a probe by a commission set up by the National Assembly.
And the final blow
Quote:
The Congolese shareholders say that they are getting tougher in negotiations. Before, they had to 'close their eyes' to certain details, such as feasibility studies carried out by the same company that would later implement the project, a practice that led to overestimating of costs.
Chinese Defense Minsiter visits Ghana, Uganda and Seychelles
The Chinese seem to be getting in on the game. This is exactly the reason why we didn't want noisy announcements and high profile visits by senior AFRICOM officials. We don't want another great power struggle for Africa.
We had one in the run-up to the Berlin conference and another during the Cold War. Africa came out pretty badly after both events: The Berlin conference left us with borders that made no sense and Soviet - American rivalry kept people like Mobutu and Siad Barre in power, murdered Lumumba and made Africa lose at least forty years of constructive engagement with the rest of the World.
Excerpt:
Quote:
Liang Guanglie, state councilor and minister of national defense of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and his party left Beijing on November 21, 2011 for the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Seychelles for an official goodwill visit at the invitation of the ministries of defense of the three countries.
Liang Guanglie’s principal entourage includes Zhu Fuxi, director of the Political Department of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and Zheng Chuanfu, commander of the PLA Beijing Garrison.
Qian Lihua, director-general of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense of the PRC, saw Liang Guanglie and his party off at the airport.
The link: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/DefenseNews/20...nt_4318072.htm
Deborah Brautigam on China's role in Africa
Very interesting talk given by an expert. Dispel's several myths about the Chinese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za8euDy9n7w
China in Africa: a different viewpoint
A good talk, but at 45 minutes long others may prefer a review of the professor's book:http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...m-1854588.html
There's also her blogsite:http://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/