EYES WIDE SHUT: HOW AFRICA SHOULD DEAL WITH CHINA
(By Mutumwa D. Mawere, Zimbabwean businessman, formerly of the IFC)
In November, about 50 African heads of state and ministers were guests of the new imperialist force in the world, China.
China pledged to double its aid to Africa by providing $5bn. More than 2,000 deals were under discussion. China says that unlike its Western counterparts, it has no political agenda.
The Chinese may be in for a rude awakening when the same African governments who applauded this generosity start to invoke the language of sovereignty over the resources of Africa and apply the same attitude that has seen assets being nationalised in Zimbabwe without any compensation. If the logic is that we are poor because they are rich, how on earth will the Chinese explain the exploitation of African resources without being targets of nationalisation?
Can you do business in an environment where the rule of law is not respected and property rights are undermined?
The Chinese premier said at the opening of the summit that china will forever be a good friend, good partner, good brother of Africa.” It is apparent that all the African leaders who listened to the Chinese leader would not dare ask who China’s friends and partners are.
Even the Chinese would admit that without the West’s technology and markets, the transformation of China would have been incomplete. Another question that remains unanswered is whether China would have developed without the Chinese entrepreneurs playing their part.
African leaders are now looking East and the East is looking West, so the story goes, and yet without Africans taking ownership of their destiny as the Chinese have done after the disasters of the Cultural Revolution, the African-ness in Africa would continue to be illusory. Very soon the Chinese will be more African than those that consider themselves to be African.
The Chinese are already Africa’s superior citizens and yet they do not vote in Africa. They have unfettered access to Africa’s resources and yet no African can ever dream of having the same access to Chinese resources. Yes, the Chinese investors are more African than some of us, as they are given preferences that we can only dream of.
If African business people are being crowded out of Africa to make way for the Chinese, the question should be: where will the African make money? It would not be surprising to discover that the African delegates to China were predominantly civil servants whose mission was to conclude deals that would not pass the test of transparency even in the opaque Chinese environment.
The role of the Chinese government in bribing African states with aid, while at the same time securing China’s future access to cheap resources, must be monitored.
The Chinese may be a different breed of capitalists, with the backing of their government, and yet they are no different from any Western capitalists. Their advantage is that their former communist governments helped in financing the liberation project of Africa but the China of today may not have anything to do with the China that African leaders seems to want to embrace.
If the China of today is more profit-driven than ideology-fixated, we find no evidence that Africa has any understanding of the complexity of China and the dangers of embracing a disguised monster.
One thing in common is that the attitude of the Chinese government to human rights may not be too different from that of African governments. The Sino-African friendship has its own promises and challenges but
Africa will remain a weaker and more confused partner, unless it can embrace its own business people. Can you imagine how many African business people have been displaced by African governments to make way for the Chinese to exploit Africa?
With the invasion of Africa by China, Africa’s intellectual and entrepreneurial minds must take note and seek sanctuary elsewhere. We need to have our own initiatives. As a collective force we have a lot going for us, but as individuals we are vulnerable to the actions of irresponsible and illegitimate governments. Africa is for sale and yet Africans are not allowed to participate in the market by their own governments.
