Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pledged $10 billion in new low interest loans to African countries at a summit in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, yesterday, and, according to the New York Times, offered a slew of other goodies ranging from debt forgiveness to increased foreign aid.
Not everyone is happy.
China’s push into Africa has been controversial; some are alarmed that the rising East Asian power threatens western interests in Africa. Others point to China’s habit of making good deals with bad governments, making it easier for nasty regimes like the ones in Sudan and Guinea to carry out their murderous plans.
Others are more relaxed. The west’s own human rights record in Africa, they point out, is nothing to brag about and in any case as China becomes a manufacturing powerhouse, it’s natural and inevitable that China will invest in countries that provide vital raw materials.
Put me in the second camp, with reservations.
America’s strategic goal isn’t to contain China or prevent its ‘peaceful rise’ as a great power. It’s just the opposite. We want and need for China to become a powerful and prosperous country that is basically happy with the way the world works. We want it to become what World Bank president Robert Zoellick has called a “responsible stakeholder” in the global system. That’s the way to keep the global system stable and growing; it’s the best way to ensure that the United States and China have a peaceful relationship in coming years.
What’s happening in Africa is part of that process. As Chinese investment in Africa grows, China is learning that it needs to do more than bribe officials. When you invest billions of dollars in a mine or an oil well, you aren’t just buying resources. You are buying a relationship with a whole society — the government, yes, but also the people who live near your investments, the public opinion that influences government policy, the trade unions, the human rights movements — the whole ball of wax.
Chinese corporations and the Chinese government today have a long way to go. But they are moving in the right direction. And Africa can use the investments, the aid and the trade.