Is China building an empire in Africa?

In past posts I recommended books pointing out the adverse and counter-productive effects of western aid to Africa. Having seen how Europe and America have failed to save the Dark Continent from itself, we should start now to look at what the Chinese are doing there.

The Chinese have been coming to Africa as travellers, traders, coolies, or entrepreneurs since at least the 14th century. Now they are undertaking to build on that continent an economic empire which will command a network of allies in China's quest for political dominance of the world.

If you want to rule the world, first you must colonize it. So thought the French and British in the 18th and 19th centuries. They succeeded, to a degree, before losing the political will to hold onto their rebellious colonies.

The Chinese have evidently learned from the mistakes of the guilou. If you own a country, you don't have to rule it directly. (They could have learned this from the position of Canada vis-a-vis the USA.) And if you want to own some countries, buy the cheapest ones first.

And so the Chinese are stealthily but surely buying their way into Africa. While the west looks at Africa's humanitarian crisis, and gives aid in the form of cash, food and medicine, China looks at the economic crisis, and quietly builds infrastructure and develops large and small businesses. Some might call it exploitation. The Chinese call it good business.

Walt recommends China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa (2009, Nation Books, New York), by French journalists Serge Michel and Michel Beuret. More on this new book tomorrow.