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China short-term boost, long-term threat to Africa
China’s trade and investment has created a positive boost for Africa’s growth, however in the long term the continent could face over-dependence on aid and growing unemployment. The warning was made yesterday by various speakers at the “China-Africa: New Types of Exchange, Cultural Identity and Emerging Relations in a Globalized World” conference.
Despite all the criticism, said Akongbowa Bramwell Amadasun, the African exports to China are growing at an annual rate of 30 percent and only a quarter are oil-related. Furthermore, relations with China alone are responsible for a 6.1 percent increase on the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP).
One of the accusations, added Salvatore Mancuso, is that Beijing’s trade model favours corruption. Yet studies show that the corruption improvement in Africa is greater in countries with significant Chinese investment, said the University of Macau professor.
For Zhang Xiomin, most of the Western criticism of Beijing’s policy is unfair, especially the claims of “neocolonialism” and “looting Africa’s natural resources”. Other accusations include “encouraging tyranny and corruption by taking side with rogue states in return for access to oil”, said the Beijing Foreign Studies University scholar. According to Mancuso, China is also singled out for “environmental damage” and “dumping substandard goods”.
African unemployment
Nonetheless, the Italian professor identified a few disadvantages for African economies, including the repatriation of profits and the preferential hiring of Chinese workers by Chinese-owned companies. Beijing should review its approach and for instance create environmental policies for investment in Africa, said Mancuso.
But things might be changing, claimed Anneliese Gegenheimer, who presented a study on China’s policy towards Tanzania. In this African country the percentage of local workers in Chinese companies “has been improving”, the American researcher said, because hiring Tanzanians is becoming “more cost-effective”.
On the other hand, China represents a serious constraint to “the growth of a domestically focused industrial sector” and to a future process of “export oriented industrialization”, stated Amadasun. In Nigeria, added Ojo Olukayode Iwaloye, the Chinese competition is partly responsible for the closure of hundreds of textile factories. In Tanzania the threat of local market cannibalization is real, said Gegenheimer, and even drove a big China-owned textile company to bankruptcy.
Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro: The Africans community grew in Macau after the first World War and at a certain point there were even six African military units in the peninsula, Taipa and Coloane
Beijing should direct its financial assistance to the creation of an African manufacturing sector that could create jobs and help the continent’s “huge unemployment rate”, argued Amadasun. After all, “What will happen when the flow of raw materials stop?” questioned the Nigerian-based scholar.
Soldiers from Mozambique stationed at one of the six military units in Macau perform a traditional African dance
Aid addiction danger
Another accusation directed at China is that its aid could cause a new wave of insurmountable debt for African countries, many of which already owe a lot of money to Western states. In 2006, the US Department of Treasury even called Beijing a “rogue creditor” for its “opportunistic lending”.
The continent’s “over-dependence on aid” is a real risk, warned Amadasun. “China should commit Africa governments to medium term development and wealth creation according to the Millennium Development Goals or an alternative Chinese program,” said the Benson Idahosa University professor.
The Chinese assistance has had “no visible impact in poorer African countries” bemoaned Amadasun. In fact, added Ansoumane Douty Diakite, 70 percent of Beijing’s infrastructure aid goes to 70 percent resource rich countries like Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, and Ethiopia. China’s foreign aid practice is used by “aspirant multinationals as leverage for market access and other investment opportunities”, claimed the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) researcher.
Wen Jiabao’s Government should find ways to improve foreign aid, admitted Xiomin, by adopting more transparency, more cooperation with Western countries and investing further in humanitarian assistance. Another way would be to bet on multilateral aid mechanisms, he added. Beijing’s Africa policy includes the possibility for free trade agreements with regional organizations but it has never been implemented, said Almeida Zacarias Machava, from Mozambique.
China could support a regional integration process to actually benefit Africa, stated South Africa based researcher Sanne Mars. In any case, added the researcher, political and legal cooperation is needed to boost the continent’s negotiation position with China and other world players.
When Africans defended Macau
There is a significant African community in Macau nowadays but their presence started many centuries ago. The presence of an African in the territory was first recorded almost as soon as the Portuguese traders settled in the area, said Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro. Travelling on the Portuguese vessels they even reached Japan, he added. 
Akongbowa Bramwell Amadasun
Back in Macau, the Africans soldiers fought side-by-side with the Portuguese to defend the city against regular attacks from pirates or Dutch military, said the USJ professor. These units even played a role in battles in nearby Guangzhou during the Ming Qing transition in China.
This community grew in Macau after the first World War and at a certain point there were even six African military units in the peninsula, Taipa and Coloane. The soldiers, mostly born in Angola and Mozambique, were “very praised” by the Portuguese administration, said Pinheiro. During the Korean War, in the 1950’s they also joined Chinese troops in a few skirmishes to stop the arms and supply trade going from Macau to North Korea.
culled from MACAU Times(Wednessday 26 May, 2010)
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