Al Jazerra explores topics about China seldom heard in the Western Media. Riz Khan, the host of this program, moderates a panel of global experts discussing China’s role in Africa.
If this is a topic that interests you, I suggest you read Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild for a balance and comparison.
Khan says that between 1998 and 2006, Africa’s exports to China increased 2,126% while exports only increased 139% to the European Union and 402% to the US.
Due to China’s incredible modernization growth rate, China has become dependent on resources from Africa, South America, Australia and Southeast Asia.
Some critics, which is to be expected, complain that China is robbing Africa of its natural resources and ignoring human rights violations and other humanitarian concerns.
However, supporters say that due to this trade with China, economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have grown an average of six percent a year since 2004.
Khan’s program explores if China is exploiting Africa or creating opportunities for economic growth.
Khan’s guests are Richard Behar, an American reporter, who wrote China Storms Africa. He says China is doing both good and bad at this time, and there is no way to predict the outcome. He feels China is copying what the West already did.
From Brussels comes Dr. John Afele, author of Digital Bridges, Developing Countries in the Knowledge Economy.
Dr. Afele says there is a difference. African governments opened to China. China did not invade Africa as the West did in the 19th and 20th centuries. China was invited in.
From Washington D.C. comes David Shinn, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia, who is now a professor at George Washington University.
Shinn says the US buys more oil from Africa but China buys more minerals and hardwood timber. All of the major players in Africa have the same interests—resource extraction and selling goods to Africans.
Juliana, a caller from Paris, asked, “Why is China being demonized?” She mentions that all Western countries did this. She points out that the differences are that China’s interests are for good because China’s focus is to invest in Africa.
Richard Behar replies that no one is demonizing China here.
Then Behar spends time criticizing China by slipping in the standard complaints from a Westerner’s point of view.
I suggest you learn more about Oil and Death in Africa to discover more on this topic.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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