China Invades Afrika

China is all over Afrika, & seemingly more successfully than the old Euro-colonists. Especially successful for China, but it's that free-market, exploit-whom-you-will glibertarianism that vicious government control is supposed get rid of, making the economy a paradise for workers & a hell-hole for risk-taking employers soulless parasite exploiters. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

There are already more Chinese living in Nigeria than there were Britons during the height of the empire. In similar hubs in cities from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Dakar and Casablanca, the decade-long project known playfully as "ChinAfrica" is exploding the old economic order.

Bilateral friendships have bloomed along with African pagodas, as 48 of the 53 African governments have broadened or initiated ties with China's juggernaut economy. Angola has become China's No. 1 source for imported oil, having surpassed Saudi Arabia in 2006. Sudan is also a leading energy partner. Mozambique and Zambia provide timber and copper. As China seeks to play in the Middle East, Egypt is an essential political ally, while in eastern Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia are important hubs for commerce and foreign relations.

China's expanding footprint across Africa has raised hackles, both on the continent and in the West. China's indifference to human rights, labor and environmental standards—a tense component of many Western business agreements—is proudly ignored on the continent. And China has displayed a brash willingness to cozy up to and deal with despotic and corrupt governments—chief among them, Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe and the genocidal regime in Khartoum.

[...] Most of the world wants to know how China does it, says David Shinn, the former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, who is writing a book on Sino-African relations. The formula, he says, is simple: "One, they take greater business risk, and two, they don't attach the political conditions that the West tends to impose." Indeed, China's remarkable control of its private sector is a clear advantage when it comes to partnerships with less economically sophisticated nations. Eight hundred Chinese companies have set up shop in Africa, and some giants, like Sinopec and Chongqing Telecom in addition to Huawei, have at times operated at a short-term loss (underwritten, naturally, by the Chinese government). [...] It's easy to see why detractors call this deal the "Chinese Takeout." They fear that resource-rich nations like the DRC will industrialize, expand and develop economically—and only then realize that brokers sold the farm for beans in 2008. Already, all but 13 of the nations in Africa are running trade deficits with China. To move from the pocket of imperialists to the pocket of a rights-averse patron state is hardly a step forward for the young governments of the continent. But, as Shinn notes, "I'm not sure that the DRC had much choice…. For a deal this big, it was either go with China or take an arrangement that would have had so many conditions attached to it, it would have been unacceptable."

Yikes. We lose again.