How China is winning the resources and the loyalties of Africa

Some see it as a late-blossoming relationship, others as a new kind of 
colonialism. Either way, China is resolutely and rapidly extending its 
presence and influence across the African continent as its companies move 
into terrain where western businesses hesitate to tread.The Chinese advance 
- government-backed, led by state-run corporations and propelled by the 
drive to secure oil supplies - has in the span of a few years changed the 
pattern of Africa's investment and trade. A secondary player on the 
continent until recently, China is establishing a position as Africa's top 
commercial partner behind the US and France, overtaking Britain.

For China, Africa offers an extra dimension: a continent three times its own 
size, less populated than itself and stocked with many of the raw materials 
it needs. Crude oil from Angola, platinum from Zimbabwe, copper from Zambia, 
tropical timber from Congo-Brazzaville, iron ore from South Africa: all are 
on China's shopping list. In return, the Chinese offer advantages to African 
governments. They bring first-hand experience of fast development, are 
attuned to conditions in poor countries and are unconcerned by scruples over 
governance standards or human rights. In a different way to the ideological 
competition that took place in Africa during the cold war, China is emerging 
strongly as an alternative option for governments more used to dealing with 
former European colonial powers and the US.

At one level China is involved in a straightforward resources grab, sinking 
billions of dollars into promising oil zones. But it is also engaged in a 
mix of influence-building and opportunism. Like Africa's former colonisers, 
it cements its political and trade relations with aid, special concessions, 
debt relief, scholarships, training and the provision of specialists. It has 
recently sent peacekeepers and - perhaps more surprisingly - election 
observers. At the same time, again like Africa's chief western partners, it 
has been ready to back its commitments with military assistance and arms, 
providing equipment to countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan where other 
suppliers are barred by embargoes.

In post-civil war Angola, Chinese contractors are rebuilding the legendary 
Benguela railway, originally completed by a British company in the 1920s, 
between the mineral-rich heart of Africa and the Atlantic coast. In Uganda a 
Chinese company is transforming Entebbe's decaying State House into a 
ceremonial complex for next year's Commonwealth summit. Trade between China 
and Africa has almost quadrupled since the start of this decade, jumping 36 
per cent last year to $39.7bn ($22.8bn, €33.4bn), according to official 
Chinese figures. About half of China's exports are machinery, electronic and 
high-technology products. Tens of thousands of Chinese have moved to Africa, 
including labourers in countries such as Ethiopia or Botswana as well as 
engineers, traders and small businessmen. One study found the number of 
Chinese registered in Sudan had tripled since the late 1990s to almost 
24,000 in 2004. Chinese tourism to Africa has boomed, with official numbers 
doubling last year to 110,000.

According to the Beijing government, more than 600 Chinese-funded companies 
have been set up in Africa in the last 10 years. These include manufacturing 
operations aimed at regional markets or possibly exports to the European 
Union or the US, exploiting the duty-free access granted to products from 
poorer African countries. China's search for African political allies goes 
back to the 1960s and 1970s, when it competed for favour with the both the 
west and the Soviet Union - building stadiums, ministries and, most 
spectacularly, 1,850km of railway from central Zambia to the Tanzanian port 
of Dar es Salaam, a project that western partners had turned down. Some 
African countries transferred their allegiance to Taiwan during the 1990s as 
Beijing and Taipei vied to buy their support. But today all but six of 
Africa's 53 nations - Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Malawi, São Tomé and 
Principe, and Swaziland - maintain relations with Beijing. Senegal was the 
latest to switch back last year.

Li Zhaozing, China's foreign minister, made a high-profile visit to six 
African countries last month. The trip, which took in Nigeria and Libya, two 
leading energy producers, also sent a signal to smaller countries about the 
technical and financial aid they could expect in return for co-operation.
China's policy nowadays is subordinated to economic objectives, with core 
interests in not only oil and strategic metals but also food resources. As 
latecomers, Chinese companies have been willing to take risks that other 
investors have shunned and enter countries where others have held back. In 
Sierra Leone they have quietly filled a vacuum in sectors from hotels to 
building materials, while the Chinese government has bolstered the navy by 
donating a fisheries patrol vessel.
A Chinese government policy document last month pledged easier market access 
for African commodities, duty-free treatment for some products and further 
encouragement for Chinese investment, backed by preferential loans and buyer 
credits. It set out a broad front of co-operation embracing agriculture, 
transport, tourism and defence as well as natural resources. While a US 
energy department study this month found China's purchases of overseas 
assets to be economically neutral for the US, it pointed to potential 
problems arising from China's readiness to deal with despotic regimes.

The clearest example of China's energy quest clashing with western policies 
is Sudan, an emerging oil producer in which China is the leading investor 
and dominant client. China has consistently used its veto in the United 
Nations Security Council to block US-led efforts to impose sanctions on 
Sudan over atrocities committed in Darfur.

A Sudanese official describes China's presence as important "not only on an 
economic level but also on a political level". Since entering Sudan's oil 
business China has stepped up sales of arms including fighter aircraft. The 
manufacture in Sudan of Chinese weapons and ammunition complicates the 
enforcement of a UN embargo on supplies to militias in Darfur. 
Chinese-designed arms and radios are reported to have been used across the 
border in Chad - where France keeps a garrison - by rebels alleged to be 
operating with Sudanese support.

In war-ruined Angola, the Chinese have leapt into one of the world's most 
inhospitable investment environments, offering a $2bn oil-backed credit at a 
time when western banks and international institutions have been cautious 
about lending. An agreement between Angola and the International Monetary 
Fund has been held up, largely because of IMF concerns about how the 
government manages its oil money. Similar misgivings have prevented the 
holding of an international donors' conference. "The Chinese are offering 
the loan as an alternative to working with the IMF," says Princeton Lyman, 
director of Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in 
Washington.
Up to now, the African view of China's fast-growing involvement has been 
overwhelmingly positive. China is widely regarded as a model of 
modernisation, more responsive to African needs than western partners, able 
to build dams, roads and bridges more quickly and cheaply and providing 
consumer products better suited to African pockets. Although Africa's 
non-oil countries have suffered from higher import costs, the continent is 
also benefiting from the rise in commodity prices driven by Chinese demand.

But criticism is growing. TradesÂÂpeople from Cape Verde to Namibia 
complain about a Chinese invasion. In Lagos, West Africa's main commercial 
hub, Nigerian authorities have been ejecting unlicensed Chinese market 
traders. Companies from China are censured for preferring Chinese labour or, 
when they employ locals, providing poor conditions. China's cheap consumer 
goods displace local production.

Garment factories have been shutting across Africa, with devastating effect 
in countries such as Lesotho, where some were Chinese-owned. There is a 
clamour for protection. When South Africa's Cosatu labour federation staged 
an anniversary celebration in December, participants peeled off their red 
union T-shirts in disgust when word went round that they were Chinese-made.

"There's no altruistic relationship between China and Africa," says Lyal 
White of the South African Institute of International Affairs. China's 
interest is not in the high-value manufactured goods South Africa wants to 
promote. "Africa is a treasure trove of raw materials and that's what China 
needs."
Chris Alden, an expert at the London School of Economics, says of the 
relationship: "African actors are beginning to see this as a mixed 
blessing." While in some countries China's involvement appears benign, in 
others its approach undercuts efforts by the African Union and western 
partners to make government and business more transparent and accountable.

Chinese co-operation provides a lifeline to countries such as Togo, largely 
cut off from European aid, and comfort to pariah regimes. Avisit to Beijing 
in November by Jendayi Frazer, US assistant secretary of state for African 
affairs, marked only a first step in interaction with China over Africa. 
China does not provide figures for development aid, has declared no arms 
sales to the UN register since 1996 and its technological assistance has 
raised questions about its motives. For a satellite to be launched next 
year, Nigeria has turned to Great Wall Industry Corporation, a Chinese 
company against which the US has applied sanctions for allegedly supplying 
Iran with technology that could be useful for a nuclear weapons programme.

A senior Nigerian foreign affairs official says: "The perception is that 
China is catching up with the level of engagement that western governments 
have . . Being a developing country, they understand us better. They are 
also prepared to put more on the table. For instance, the western world is 
never prepared to transfer technology - but the Chinese do. It is our view 
that, while China's technology may not be as sophisticated as some western 
governments, it is better to have Chinese technology than none at all."

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