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  The Age of the Dragon: China's Conquest of Africa

The Age of the Dragon China's Conquest of Africa

By Andreas Lorenz and Thilo Thielke

Part 4: Chinese Trade Props up African Tyrants

It is precisely because of these close trade relations that German political scientist Denis Tull calls China's growing political influence in Africa "overwhelmingly negative." Tull is the author of the study "The Africa Policy of the People's Republic of China" for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and, as he sees it, China's unconditional willingness to engage in trade and its vehement "defense of the principle of sovereignty," far from forcing the Africans to bring about democracy and transparency, is only helping Africa's tyrants.

This Chinese-African relationship is governed by the old principle of give and take. In return for defending the Chinese government against criticism for the Tiananmen Square massacre or even, as former Namibian President Sam Nujoma did, congratulating the Beijing regime for putting down the "anti-revolutionary" democracy movement, Africans receive Beijing's blessing for their own ruthless treatment of dissidents.

According to the Washington-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, "China's willingness to arm and seek political support from African regimes jars with international efforts to foster democratization and good governance."

Pressing Sudan

Only recently, however, Beijing had to abandon its generous posture toward Sudan. Concerned that American celebrities could call a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics because of China's cynical position on Sudan, the Chinese government dispatched a special envoy to the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.

The Chinese envoy finally managed to convince the Sudanese to agree, at least in part, to a United Nations peace plan for Darfur. The Chinese move was prompted in particular by the initiative of US actress Mia Farrow, who was already calling the Olympics the "Genocide Games" and had sharply attacked fellow Hollywood figure Steven Spielberg, who is involved in the planning of the opening ceremonies in Beijing. In response to Farrow's criticism, Spielberg wrote a concerned letter to President Hu.

But according to He Wenping, director of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, it is not access to raw materials alone that is driving the Chinese to the Congo, the Nile and the Niger. She believes that political goals also play an important role. China, says Wenping, wants to become an influential player on the international stage, and a budding superpower needs to develop a following.

Hardly any region seems as open to providing favors as Africa, which has many votes in the UN. China hopes to win these votes, especially when it comes time to position itself against the powerful United States. Wenping, a petite scientist who wears her hair short and has an office in the former imperial ministry of the navy, is convinced that "nothing can happen without Africa."

There is yet another reason to explain China's growing push into Africa. More and more Chinese workers and farmers are settling in Africa because they can earn more money there.

In the first 10 months of 2006, more than 270,000 Chinese were already working in Africa. More than 100,000 of them have put down roots permanently -- as merchants, farmers and bar and restaurant owners. They include people like Li Shaofu, who wasn't earning enough money in China to pay his children's tuition and decided to work for a Chinese company in the Niger Delta.

A Wave of Chinese Immigration

Like dozens of others, Shaofu was hired by Teleken Engineering Co., a state-owned telecommunications firm. Intermediaries obtained passports for the workers, none of whom spoke any English, and put them on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Africa. "All the boss told us was that we should not laugh or smile in front of strangers, say little and not wander around," says a worker from Jianqiang, a village in Sichuan Province.

The Chinese were tempted by relatively high wages. Shaofu brought home 50,000 yuan (€5,000) for slightly less than one year of work in Africa. He would have been lucky to earn 13,000 yuan in China in the same amount of time. "If there is an opportunity next year," says a farmer from Guanzi, "I want to go abroad. Even if it is dangerous, it is still better than working in the fields at home."

The excursion to the Niger delta almost ended in tragedy for Shaofu and his fellow Chinese. Nigerian rebels kidnapped him and four other Chinese workers from Sichuan Province, and only released them after holding them for two weeks. The nine Chinese oil workers in eastern Ethiopia who died the previous week in a rebel attack were less fortunate.

It is a fate that is unlikely to befall Si Su, a farmer from Jiangsu Province. Together with his wife and two children, Su settled near the Zambian capital Lusaka and founded the Sunlight Farm. He now stands in the fields every day, supervising his roughly 50 Zambian employees as they plough or pull weeds in his cornfield. He feels as if he were in his own paradise.

"The people are peaceful and friendly," he says, "I liked them right away." Su and his family entered the country in 1992 as workers in a Chinese-Zambian agricultural cooperative. Despite widespread anti-Chinese sentiments, they plan to stay in Zambia, and have already learned English.

They miss China sometimes, especially for its food. But they have not returned home yet, not even for a visit. Su is too worried about his farm to leave. There is a Chinese saying, he says, that goes like this: "When the tiger is in the mountains, the ape becomes king."

Behind Su, Mr. Enson, the Zambian tractor driver, confidently drives his red Chinese-made Dongfeng ("East Wind") brand tractor. Enson, feeling unobserved and playful, sings an African song about Zimba the lion as he works. Su is appalled. "Careful, careful!" he calls out.

But he collects his composure quickly. "We human beings must enrich one another. They will learn discipline from us, and they will teach us how to carry sunshine in our hearts."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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