The new colonialism rantings, as a headline in an African daily described Hillary’s advisory during her three nation visit ( Ethiopia was her last stop over) , have been rejected by Chinese analysts. While that is to be expected, the question that demands closer scrutiny is whether the Hillary warning has some substance or whether it is an extension of a myopic vision that pump-primes Washington to see the dragon as a threat to the regal bald eagle known for its majestic beauty, great strength and long life.

Honestly, there can be no discord with the basic thrust of her case – ‘US doesn’t want any foreign governments or investors to fail in Africa, but want to make sure that they give back to local communities’. Also her contention ‘We don’t want them to undermine good governance, we don’t want them to basically deal with just the top elites, and frankly too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest’. These are universal values. There can be no two opinions.

There is a view that America’s love, in fact, of the entire West, of Africa, is a reaction to the inroads made by China in recent years.  Clinton is the first Secretary of State to visit Zambia since Henry Kissinger went there in 1976 to lay out the Ford administration’s policy for southern Africa.   Like now, then also Africa was in the headlines. Those were the days of revolts against white minority rule in South Africa, and what was then Rhodesia.

Some experts from the fading socialist thought fervently believe that the Operation in Libya is the White Man’s way of asserting his supremacy vis-à-vis the China factor. From this hypothesis emerges the theory that after Libya, it could be the turn of Ivory Coast and Syria to be the targets for United Nations-sanctioned intervention. Zimbabwe too may fall in the same category, if the West manages to have its way and the mission in Libya turns out to be short.

Historically speaking, the 19th century scramble for Africa began with what constitutes Libya today. History has a tendency to repeat, not always though. Some thinkers don’t like to subscribe to the view that there is an economic angle to the unfolding events in Libya.  Hillary Clinton is certainly not in their league.

Addressing the U.S.-Zambia Chamber of Commerce, she had spelt out the American blueprint for helping Africa. ‘We want a relationship of partnership not patronage, of sustainability, not quick fixes," she said. "We want to establish a strong foundation to attract new investment, open new businesses … create more pay checks, and do so within the context of a positive ethic of corporate responsibility’.

It is no body’s case that the Americans or the Chinese are in Africa for charity. Both are fighting, as a comment posted on a local website said, for ‘our resources’. Here is a representative selection of three reactions from readers posted on African news sites, which reflect the mood at Ground Zero.  

One said ‘There is nothing for free. Both giants are competing for benefits from Africa’. Another comment is no less interesting. It says: ‘….Just Google and see what is happening in Guangzhou province (southern china). …African despots love China because they just want resources and do not talk about good governance in Africa or in any part of the world’.

The third comment holds your attention as you surf the African net. It reads: “They (Chinese) bribe our leaders’ big time! Hence our leaders are unable to control the actions of their new financial masters on the ground. Miners strike, they send in armed policemen. Workers want better conditions of service, they send in armed policemen! This is the way you can tell that our leaders do not know how to react to genuine demands of the people because they have been blinded by Chinese money”.

China hasn’t managed thus far to shrug off Hillersque which was heard across Africa as she went on Zambian TV and radio. ‘We saw that during colonial times it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave. When people come to Africa to make investments, we want them to do well but also want them to do good….’

NOT ACTING IN A VACUUM

All things considered, China is not alone in Africa, acting in a vacuum. Many other countries are active in the continent within the context of the neo-liberal global economy. For instance, India has important interests and projects. Japan has doubled its low interest loans. But all this is no match to China’s role, which, as clearly brought out by a recent scholarly work (China’s New Role in Africa and the South-A search for a new perspective: Edited by Dorothy Guerrero, Firoze Manji) is decidedly multifaceted. In Zambia alone, China’s investments contributed to the creation of 15,000 job opportunities last year, according to official statistics released in Lusaka.

African scholar and author, Sanusha Naidu, makes it plain that Chinese interest in Africa is resource-driven with nearly 80% of Chinese imports classified as oil or petroleum-based since 2000. For instance, 500,000 barrels of oil are exported to China from Angola each day, and it is only Chinese companies, with mainly Chinese employees, who carry out this work; so Chinese industry benefits from both the oil and the extraction work. China also made extensive investment in Sudan particularly in oil pipelines and related infrastructure. The ‘benefits’ are directly shipped to the Communist Mainland through South China Sea.

The book, ‘Chinese and African Perspectives on China in Africa’, Sanusha Naidu has co-edited (with Axel Harneit-Sievers, and Stephen Marks. Pambazuka Press) offers some interesting food for thought. It says, which is also borne by facts, that China since joining the club of developed capitalist states, ‘sees Africa as a source of raw materials and a market for exports’. China is a major producer of wood and paper products, but has relatively little by way of forestry resources; hence its companies undertake logging in Mozambique and Tanzania. Minerals such as iron ore, copper and uranium are imported from Liberia, Zambia and Niger. It also buys platinum and iron ore from Zimbabwe. It colonises vast tracts of agricultural land in outright commercial deals.

China’s latest Africa show piece is the Kalahari Minerals plc, acquired through the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation on April 6, 2011. Listed on both the Namibian and London exchanges,  the company’s main asset is the Husab Uranium Project, located about 30 miles ( 48 Kilometres) north-east of Namibia’s main port – Walvis Bay, which has been defined as the fourth largest uranium deposit of high quality in the world.
    
SCRIPT PERFECTED IN BYGONE ERA

Following the script perfected by colonial regimes of the bygone era, China has given a big push to export of finished goods to Africa. In Nigeria, for example, cheap Chinese textiles have undercut domestically-produced goods, increasing local unemployment. Chinese companies export cheap, and sometimes dangerous, goods aimed specifically at the African market, where consumers have little money to spend. It is also giving cheap loans and tax credits to push the sale of its cars, bicycles, computers, chocolates and T-shirts.

Arms sales are also an important source of Chinese profits, with Sudan, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe among the purchasers. China’s support of Eritrean People’s Liberation Front and its strong bi-lateral relations with Ethiopia since 1991 have led to infrastructural development for Ethiopia and market diversification for China.

No surprise, therefore, bilateral trade between China and Africa has increased over the last decade to more than $US100 billion.  And Africa has become China’s second-largest contractual project market and third-largest investment destination encompassing manufacturing, mining, banking, railways, telecommunications, and energy sectors.

It imports more than $6.5 billion worth of South African raw materials and thereby has emerged as a major consumer of South African natural resources.  It helped build Merowe Dam on the Nile, Sudan’s most prestigious project. It gifted Guinea-Bissau a marble parliament building.

BAMBOO CAPITALIST
More than these nuggets, which, Google can locate in the fraction of a second, Naidu’s book is a must read because it lends credence to Hillary Clinton’s view of new colonialism by China. It shows  the extent to which the Bamboo capitalist is acting in essentially the same way as the good old East India company and how the workers and peasants of Africa remain subjected to the exploitation and oppression of  the ‘home-grown’, and the neo-colonialist, who swears by the rights of peasants and workers. Cumulative affect of Chinese engagement with strongly entrenched African political elites is deepening of class-based divisions.

In these days of Arab Spring that doesn’t demand the rebirth of 15th century Michel de Nostredame to predict with time and date and venue the  outcry for rights and social justice, China may have to worry about political stability, which is the sine qua non  for its economic hegemony in the African nations steeped in poverty and authoritarianism. It may also have to continuously restructure investment plans for Africa.  For two primary reasons. One by now well documented Chinese disregard for local rules and local culture. Two reluctance to use local labour for its projects.

There are no clear estimates of imported Chinese workers in Africa but there is evidence to show that China townships have sprung up wherever official Chinese Yuan is invested, and these ‘enclaves’ are serviced by petty Chinese traders, who are brought in to increase ‘the comfort level’ – language wise and services wise.  Anti-Chinese riots have become common, ‘from the Solomon Islands and Zambia to Tongo and Lesotho’, according to a report.

In the recent years, particularly as the West has got bogged down, first in Kosovo and then in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has spread its wings across Africa, virtually unchallenged in 45 countries.  Trade between Africa and China is galloping at nearly 44 per cent a year.  China’s gross investment in Africa may touch $50 billion and bilateral trade will be worth $300 billion by 2015, according to various projections.

What helped Beijing to deepen its Africa ties? The successors of Mao Zedong don’t take the pulpit to lecture the Africans on the Long March to Communist Utopia. Instead they use China’s presence in the UN Security Council to win favours on the African soil. Beijing, for instance, repeatedly defended Khartoum, and this in turn boosted its stature among beleaguered African regimes.

ZIMBABWE: A CASE STUDY

Zimbabwe offers a good case study of how China operates in Africa and even South America.  British daily, Telegraph reports that China is ready to pour $10 billion and provide a “master-loan facility” aimed at resuscitating Zimbabwe’s struggling economy.

What does Beijing want in return? Well, control of the country’s vast platinum deposits owned by the government in the Selous and Northfields concession covering 68 square miles and valued at between $30 billion to $40 billion. Zimbabwe has the second-largest reserves of platinum in the world after South Africa. Its other prized possessions include coal, methane gas, chrome, copper, nickel and gold.

China also has its eyes on the Marange diamond fields in Chiadzwa, which the Mugabe army seized in 2008, after ‘shooting the miners from helicopter gunships’. Already, China mines one alluvial diamond concession at Chiadzwa under the banner of Anjin Investments. It is believed to be involved in illegal mining activities, but these reports are never confirmed.

Zimbabwe – China ties are not restricted to business alone. Beijing has been shipping weapons and one of these shipments coincided with the 2008 elections which saw President Robert Mugabe yield to politics of expediency and form a “unity” government with his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is troubled by the Chinese deals and the presence of around 5,000 Chinese workers in the country but sees little option. MDC’s Tendai Biti is the finance minister in the Mugabe government. ‘Although the investment from China is not a particularly good fit, the Chinese are the only investors out there’, the party leaders said as they welcomed China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in February.

‘China will negotiate with both sides of Zimbabwe’s coalition as it seeks to deepen its economic ties’, Professor He Wenping, an Africa specialist with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said in an interview. The same view has been expressed, though in a more nuanced manner by Dr Martyn Davies, an expert on China-Africa relations and CEO of Frontier Advisory. ‘It is not in their interests to do some transaction which in two years or maybe even sooner would have to be restructured if there’s a change in Zimbabwe’s political arrangement’.

Already there are reports that China has started to build a close relationship with Emmerson Mnangagwa, the defence minister, who is widely seen as Mugabe’s successor to lead the Zanu – PF party. He is a member of the powerful Joint Operations Command, which advises Mugabe, and he received his military training in China.

China’s interest in ‘stabilising’ Zimbabwe has another reason. The Mugabe country sits at ‘a strategically vital point’ between China’s two largest investments in Africa – Angola and South Africa’.  China also sees Zimbabwe along with Sudan, Tanzania and Kenya as future source of food for its growing middle class.  

MORE CASE STUDIES

In Zambia, the Chinese direct investment exceeded $1 billon in 2010, with copper mining and agriculture as the focus. In October last year, two Chinese managers shot and injured 13 workers at a coal mine in what is described as the first manifestation of unhappiness at the Chinese presence in the country.

Sudan also figures high in China’s pecking order, accounting for 60 per cent of Sudan’s oil exports and 71 per cent of all Sudanese exports. China is also investing in irrigation, air and seaports. Backbone of Sudanese Air Force is 66 Chinese-made aircraft.  

Like in Sudan, in Algeria also, oil is China’s main target. It has six major oil projects already. As many as 50 large Chinese companies invested upto $ 1 billion by 2010 end. Comparatively speaking, China appears to bet more on Nigeria, where its total investment so far has crossed the $ 7 billion mark. And another $ 9 billion is in the pipeline to tap oil and gas reserves in the Niger Delta. China is also putting its money in Nigeria’s agriculture and steel processing sectors. Tanzania is another country where China is tapping the agriculture sector though the direct foreign investment was modest at $200 million by the end of 2009. Pharmaceuticals, mining and construction, and transport infrastructure are its mainstay in the country.

Kenya’s ports, roads and rail lines are on China’s Africa radar besides hydro-electric and wind power projects with liberal loans and grants. The rail and road projects are designed to connect neighbouring Ethiopia, Southern Sudan and Rwanda to the port at Lamu.

What has helped China to deepen its Africa ties?

HOME TRUTH – NO MAD FIXATION

The successors of Mao Zedong don’t take the pulpit to lecture the Africans on the Long March to Communist Utopia. Instead they use China’s presence in the UN Security Council to win favours on the African soil. Beijing, for instance, repeatedly defended Khartoum, and this in turn boosted its stature among beleaguered African regimes. No surprise, the African elite loves the Chinese and their Yuan power.

As Wenran Jiang, an associate professor of political science at the University of Alberta, Canada, says today’s China, despite its impressive economic growth, shares many similarities with Africa:  widening inequality, rampant corruption, lack of political transparency, rising inflation and tight government control.

That may indeed be the ‘home’ truth but it doesn’t minimise, much less eliminate, the concern over China’s foray into international power politics through a display of its rugged economic muscle, which brings in its wake the East India company syndrome into play.  This is not a mad, mad China fixation.

REFERENCES
1. Clinton Warns Africa of ‘New Colonialism’, Jun 11, 2011
http://arabnews.com/economy/article452434.ece

2. Hillary: Chinese system doomed; The Atlantic, May 10, 2011
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/05/hillary-clinton-chinese-system-is-doomed-leaders-on-a-fools-errand/238591/1/

3. China not model for Africa, Clinton tells Zambia’s radio, Africa 360
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0611/dont_look_east_34fe2d77-7e7b-4a93-a87e-a34d13cbb87a.html

4. China fumes over Clinton remark: By Reid J. Epstein in American Economic Alert, June 14

5. China rejects Clinton’s ‘new colonialism’ rantings in Zambia, June 13, 2011
http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=14376

7.  Shanghai surprise: by Raghav Bahl, Oct 10, 2010
www.hindustantimes.com/Shanghai-surprise/Article1-610960.aspx

8. Chinese investment: Good for Africa- By Sanusha Naidu, July 18, 2009
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/57074

9. China at a glance-By Malcolm Moore in The Telegraph, Feb 10, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/8315107/China-in-Africa-at-a-glance.html

10. China renews relationship with Zimbabwe, The Telegraph, UK, Feb 10, 2011
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/8315432/China-renews-relationship-with-Zimbabwe.html

11. What does China want from Zimbabwe, The Telegraph, UK,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8315439/What-does-China-want-from-Zimbabwe.html

12. China in Zimbabwe: what does it mean for Mugabe?
      By Aislinn Laing & Peta Thornycroft in The Telegraph, Feb 10, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/8315104/China-in-Zimbabwe-what-does-it-mean-for-Robert-Mugabe.html

13. Mugabe from freedom fighter to aged tyrant: The Telegraph, UK, Feb 21, 2011 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/8336943/Robert-Mugabe-from-freedom-fighter-to-aged-tyrant.html

14. Chinese in £750m bid for African uranium: The Telegraph, March 8, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/8367126/Chinese-in-750m-bid-for-African-uranium.html

15. Why oil is so important to China: By Praveen Swami, Telegraph, Mar 8, 2011 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8369641/Why-oil-is-so-important-to-China.html

16. Book Title: China’s New Role in Africa and the South
-A search for a new perspective
 Edited by Dorothy Guerrero, Firoze Manji, (Fahamu Books & Pambazuka Press Publication) For details see:    http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100618100)

17. Book Title: Chinese and African Perspectives on China in Africa
                         Edited by Axel Harneit-Sievers, Stephen Marks, Sanusha Naidu
                         (Fahamu Books & Pambazuka Press Publication)
For details see:    http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100804370)

18.  http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/06/165941.htm

19.  http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=14376

20. www.npr.org/2011/06/11/137123249/clinton-in-zambia-to-woo-africa-from-chinese-rivals

21.  Kalahari Minerals plc web site            http://www.kalahari-minerals.com/