Opinion

Real benefits for Africa

By Zhong Yue (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-01 17:23

Despite the accusations of the West, Chinese companies offer practical concrete assistance and true friendship

Some in the West have got used to looking at China's booming cooperation with African countries from a distorted perspective, citing China's moves in recent years as an attempt to plunder the abundant resources in the vast land and convert the underdeveloped continent into an important raw material supply base for its own economic development.

Such a conclusion is based on the assumption that Sino-African cooperation is confined to the field of resources and that Chinese people are willing to use any tactics, including unscrupulous ones, to gain from local partners what they want.

However, US professor Deborah Brautigam made a detailed investigation of Chinese enterprises in Africa and wrote a book The Dragon's Gift, presenting the true picture.

Brautigam found that China's investment and assistance has been distributed among almost all African countries, and is not focused on just the resource-rich countries. Statistics indicate that China's investment in the manufacturing sector over the past five years is far larger than its investment in local energy and mining industries.

As to the allegation that Chinese Africa-based companies have used unscrupulous methods to further their selfish interests, Brautigam states this is an even greater distortion of China-Africa cooperation and a Western attempt to demonize China's image.

China's rapid economic growth in recent years has increased its demand for energy and resources. As a result, a number of domestic enterprises have operations overseas to supply the country with resources and energy, including in some African countries.

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However, in their dealings with African partners, whether in crude oil or minerals, the international market price and the principle of equitable transaction are embraced. Chinese enterprises not only have to hold arduous negotiations with local governments, they also have to consider how to survive the fierce competition from commercial rivals from other countries.

In this process, Chinese enterprises consistently adhere to the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. This is in sharp contrast with some Western companies.

The reason why African countries are willing to cooperate with Chinese companies is partly because of their decades-long friendship with China, but also because they know that China will be an equal and credible cooperative partner.

Unlike the investment withdrawal by Western companies from the copper industry in Zambia after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, which plunged the local economy into a mess, Chinese companies have promised not to withdraw, stop production or cut the number of local employees. More than 6,000 locals employed in Chinese companies in Zambia still have their jobs.

Cooperation between Chinese enterprises and local partners in Angola, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo in energy and resources has not only helped increase employment and tax revenues in these countries, it has also greatly improved their infrastructure and power and telecommunication supply. There are few such benefits from dealing with Western companies.

China's growing energy and resource demands as well as the ever-expanding cooperation with African countries have brought the latter at least two "dividends". The first is that the rising prices of energy and minerals on the world market have increased the incomes of African countries heavily dependent on the export of these materials. The second is that the influence of African countries upon the global economy has been increased and their international status and political influence raised.

Western media and politicians call China's deepening cooperation with African countries a "threat" and "neo-colonialism" and like to point an accusing finger at China every time a new energy and resource project is initiated with African countries, but this is because Western countries "worry that their status in Africa will be replaced by China", as Jose Eduardo dos Santos, president of Angola, pointed out.

Such Western criticism of China is unlikely to be silenced in the foreseeable future, but the increasing benefits that African people enjoy from cooperation with China will counter any disparaging noises from the West.

The author is an international issues observer.