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Chinese Dragon eyeing Africa
13.04.2012 19:14 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Addis Ababa is proudly boasting a new press center of the African Union, which was built on $200mn donated by China. This high-profile project is the latest of many funded by the People’s Republic in African countries.
The Chinese penetration there followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Over the past 10 years, China’s annual trade with Africa has expanded tenfold to $160bn, and its investment in Africa has grown 15 times. Chinese leaders are frequent guests on the Black Continent, and they never make secret of their country’s pursuits in this part of the world. Unlike the US, which is mostly after Africa’s coastal and offshore oil and gas, China is eyeing every other possible resource and is heavily investing in mining, farming, processing and infrastructure development. It is also helping African nations build schools and hospitals and train teachers, engineers, doctors. Last year, the transfer of Chinese technology started to pick up.
We have an opinion from Dr Andrei Volodin of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy:
«China believes its massive projects in Arica can help African nations attain economic independence. It is also hoping to receive African oil and gas and tap the untold mineral wealth of the African continent. In this, it is certain to encounter stiff opposition from the West. The struggle for the Libyan oil is far from over. The future will bring a multitude of similar clashes.»
One such clash, in Sudan, is already in progress. Worried by China’s expansion, the US has helped oil-rich South Sudan gain independence. Chinese-backed Sudan, meanwhile, continues to control the pipelines that link the southern oil fields to the Red Sea export terminals. The outcome of this conflict is anyone’s guess.
South Sudan continues to receive Israeli and American arms, as the US tries to chase Chinese companies out of the oil-rich South. Observers believe a similar American scenario for oil-rich parts of Uganda is in the works.
Chinese-American recrimination over Africa is heating up, as each of the sides accuses the other of exercising neocolonialism.
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