China's President Hu Jintao is welcomed upon his arrival in Nigeria during his April 2006 Africa tour: «There is nothing to be embarrassed of.»

© Govt of Nigeria / afrol News

afrol News, 2 November - China is the new superstar on the African continent when it comes to new diplomatic ties, trade expansion and investments in large-scale development projects. This is to be emphasised at the China-Africa summit in Beijing. While most hail the new Chinese drive, some fear a new scramble for Africa's vast natural resources.

Widely believed to become the world's largest economy, China is successfully seeking its place under the African sun. Starting out with pariah nations such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, excellent relations are now held with almost all of Africa's 53 states. 48 of them are sending high-level delegations to the Beijing summit.

China also gives great emphasis to its new strengthening ties with African nations. According to China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, "the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum is the largest international convention ever convened in China." Beijing residents are warned of heavy traffic limitations during the weekend summit.

For African governments, China's new interest mostly has been a blessing. Diplomatically, their dependence on Western countries is eased, allowing new diplomatic competition as in the Cold War era, and giving pariah leaders an alternative backing. Chinese aid funds are also popular, because Beijing asks no questions on good governance and is fond of prestigious grand projects.

Economically, however, the Chinese advance has been a mixed blessing for Africa. With China's admittance to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), it has boomed into an economic superpower of cheap mass produced exports, giving no room for African competition. This has hit Africa's nascent industry very hard, in particular the textile sector, and already pushed African industrialisation plans decades back.

But Beijing is not only interested in gaining African export markets. The economic superpower is not endowed with many natural resources, making Beijing dependent on mass imports of crude materials. Here, competition with the US and Europe is fierce and China's cosy flirt with Africa is mostly seen as a means of securing access to African minerals and hydrocarbons.

To get hand on oil and metals, Western powers say China is willing to ignore all principles. Beijing ignores an international boycott of the Burma military regime to secure oil resources. It supports the Khartoum regime - which is accused of genocide in Darfur - and has achieved control of most of Sudan's oil exports. Western leaders, intellectuals and human rights groups thus warn Africa about deepening ties with Beijing.

African critics however rightfully respond that Europe and the US have not plaid a much different role in Africa's history, and keep doing so. Also the West supports terrible regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea if there are sufficient strategic resources, and mutilating conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola found their markets in Europe and the US. Stable democracies as Mali and Benin, with few mineral resources, stay widely ignored.

Rejecting Western warnings on the basis of hypocrisy, African scholars however also see dangers in China's advance. Nigeria-born Dr Toyin Falola of the University of Texas warns about several concerns. Most importantly, "China's bilateralism in relation to Africa" could undermine regional and continental institutions as "it replays the colonialist divide and conquer tactics." African countries are too small to negotiate with giant China alone, he warns.

Mr Falola further warns against post-communist China's exclusive focus on government-to-government and business-to-government relations. "This is where the biggest challenge is both for African CSOs, NGOs, other pro-people forces and China itself," he warns, having in mind the need for civil society in Africa to grow in strength.

Such fears are however unlikely to be brought up in Beijing, where a well-directed and spectacular summit will reflect an image of perfection and harmony. There will be "nothing to be embarrassed of," emphasised government spokesman Jianchao, referring to the participation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Beijing expects to enter a plenitude of new business agreements, focusing on the supply of African crudes to China's booming industry. In particular, one hopes to enter more deeply into Angola's US-dominated oil production and to conquer Guinea-Bissau's projected oil exports before the West arrives. The scramble for African natural resources continues, this time to feed China with the crudes it needs to oust Africa's own industrial hopes.

By Rainer Chr. Hennig

© afrol News

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