More evidence that Beijing is inreasing its influence in Africa.

From the DEFENSE INDUSTRY DAILY website:

quote:

China’s Unusual Deals Working to Grow African Arms Presence
01-Feb-2009 17:49 EST


...In 2008, the point was underlined by sales like the deal with Zimbabwe for 12 K-8/JL-8 jet trainers and light attack aircraft, but a number of deals are reportedly pending with various countries. These reportedly include everything from K-8 Karakorum jets and FC-1/JF-17 fighters, to WMZ-551 wheeled APCs, artillery, and of course the usual set of small arms and ammunition deals. One of the challenges that the July 2008 Forecast International report had discussed is the region’s economic weakness, but UPI Asia notes that China has a solution. Zambia has used its copper resources to pay China in a number of military deals, Kenya has been negotiating with China to trade fishing rights for arms, and similar deals are under discussion elsewhere.

While China’s economy has cooled as a result of the global recession, long-term, secure access to the resources needed to supply its growing economy is one of the regime’s top strategic priorities. Africa is poor by policy, but the continent has rich resources of oil and key industrial metals. This Chinese arms thrust looks set to be combined with soft-power approaches, such as the recent launch of a PLAN hospital ship that can serve in diplomatic roles, as well as offering high-capacity medical support for amphibious assaults. If arms sales and naval activities can be combined with economic ties and other forms of local relationship-building and military presence, China will gain the full range of tools for influencing these regimes in favorable ways.

Oddly, none of this was mentioned in a recent SIPRI analysis of China’s stepped-up deployments of peacekeeping troops, which appear to have a strong focus on African operations...

...[and thru dubious trade practices too]...



China’s Africa Strategy Blossoms as Relationship Develops

China-Briefing .com
June 8, 2009

NAIROBI, Jun. 8 -China has stepped up its foreign policy of friendship and trade with Africa this year as it seeks to further strengthen its ties throughout the continent. With President Hu Jintao having already visited Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius, China announced a new Beijing summit of African nations aimed at actively developing a strategic China-African partnership. Chinese influence pan-Africa, unencumbered by colonial history, the politics of aid, and an understanding of how sometime dictatorial governments work, is set to rise significantly across the region.

Hu’s visit, coming as it did during the shock waves of the global financial crisis, appears structured to convince African nations that China intends to be rather more than a fair-weather friend. With Africa having been apparently placed at the bottom of the pile of importance by economically battered European nations, China has been quick to assert itself in their absence. Accusations that China has cherry-picked African nations for strategic alliances appear to have been reversed. None of the four nations visited are particularly rich in resources. That means hats off to China’s foreign policy and strategy in Africa, recognizing that rather than national borders, Africa remains, despite previous colonial attempts to draw lines, largely a tribal continent. Doing business based purely on Africa’s national borders and localized mineral or resource wealth doesn’t necessarily cut it. China’s strategy of dealing with Africa carefully, but as a whole, appears to be paying dividends that the previous colonial powers just cannot match due to their inherent historical bias.

China has also uncovered a powerful windfall in its acquisition through trade of trillions of U.S. dollars. While to the West, the appreciation of the dollar has been hurting large sectors of the U.S. economy, for China, away from the prying eyes of Washington, it means both China and several other Asian countries – such as India and Thailand – have acquired significant purchasing power in world markets. Additionally, oil and other commodities have been at their lowest levels for several years, resulting in China finding itself in a powerful bargaining position in what has become a global buyers market to those nations who have the cash. China is signing long-term deals with many African nations for a variety of natural resources. When the global recovery comes, as one day it must, China will find itself in control of considerable portions of the world’s natural resources, including oil. Africa therefore now finds itself in the rare position of being courted by the United States, the EU and Asia; with China currently the top player.

Arrival of the Asian Tigers in Africa’s recent economic history

Exporting aggressively, and undercutting traditional, mainly European producers, Asia rapidly began to view Africa as both a large potential export market but also as a source of resources. In some cases, however, Africa still has to learn to insist on quality control measures. As China politically strengthens its position in Africa, many low-end Chinese exports are just not up to standard and the country is generating a reputation for poor quality goods. Friends of mine reference a Chinese made hammer, which after just six blows to knock a wooden peg in the ground to secure a safari camp tent, broke in several pieces – the wooden handle cleaving in two and the metal head fracturing into pieces. I have heard recurring stories across Africa of similar incidents involving cheap Chinese products; the dumping perhaps of shoddy goods long discarded by more sophisticated markets? China still has a large number of low-level, poor quality-producing state-owned enterprises to maintain for the sake of its workers, and it wouldn’t surprise me if such products are now being sent to Africa, where corruption, a lack of QC supervision on imports, and possible political pressure allow such product entry.

Regardless, trade volumes between Africa and Asia have sky-rocketed. Exports from Africa grew annually at 15 percent from 1990 to 1995, and has reached 20 percent plus for each of the past twelve years. African trade with China alone in 2008 was US$106.84billion, up 45 percent over 2007. At present, African trade with Asia is running at about 30 percent of that which it enjoys with the EU and the United States, however, the volume of trade has grown exponentially partly due to improvements in infrastructure and the proximity of the two continents. It takes just five hours to fly from Nairobi in Kenya across the Indian Ocean to Mumbai – the same time it takes to fly from Urumqi to Beijing.

Currently, just five African nations account for 85 percent of all Asian trade, however, with infrastructure developments and political reform occurring in Africa too, bottlenecks that have traditionally gotten in the way of such commerce are gradually – and in several cases quickly - being removed. Asian demand for finished product from Africa is increasing, and has been growing at about 20 percent per year, particularly in textiles and apparel. African imports on the other hand include machinery and equipment, vehicles (including Indian and Chinese made motorbikes and trucks), and electronic goods and appliances. Beijing has encouraged this trade by removing or reducing tariffs on a wide variety of African imports and has signaled it may do so again to further boost trade.

China’s long arm of commerce therefore is moving steadily and strongly to Africa. It is time to take heed.

China-Guinea deal highlights Africa business ties

BEIJING – A $7 billion mining deal between Guinea's repressive military regime and a little-known Chinese company underscores China's full-throttle rush into Africa and its willingness to deal with brutal and corrupt governments.

The deal announced last week by the West African country's military junta offers the company, China International Fund, access to Guinea's bauxite and other minerals and could provide major revenues to a government facing international isolation. Guinea's soldiers opened fire on demonstrators late last month, killing up to 157, and raped women in public.

Human rights groups decried the pact. China's government has declined to confirm it or answer related questions, and the company also refused to comment.

In many ways, the Guinea deal reflects established Chinese business practices in Africa, characterized by huge investments in a still-poor continent but also secrecy and often scant regard for labor and human rights.

China's defenders point out that other investors from the West, Japan, India and elsewhere are also major economic partners with less-than-democratic African governments. In Guinea, Alcoa of the United States and Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto PLC are already major players in the bauxite business. Also, China has given aid, loans or investment to more than 17 African nations, some of which do have democratic governments.

But China's practices have raised questions about whether the huge sums will hamper the progress of human rights and good governance in Africa, even as they raise the standards of living and line the pockets of some. China has given large chunks of money to corrupt and abusive regimes such as those in oil-rich Nigeria and Sudan, much criticized over abuses in the Darfur region. For example, China has a controversial $9 billion agreement with violence-plagued Congo.

"There's obviously mixed emotions with regard to China-Africa relations," said Kellie Jane Whitlock, of the South African magazine Corporate Africa.

Unlike companies from the recession-struck West, there are "Chinese companies that are still growing and looking into investing further into Africa," Whitlock said. The Chinese are "quite inclined to look after their investment and build their investment. They are serious about investing in Africa."

Scrutiny and mixed emotions are rising in Africa as the volume of China's dealings soar. Trade has soared 10 times since 2001, passing the $100 billion-mark last year. Estimates of Chinese investment in Africa range upward from $6 billion as China tries to lock up oil, gas, and other key resources for its resource-hungry economy. Estimates for total loans, investment and aid donations — often difficult to distinguish from each other — run closer to $50 billion.

Hong Kong-registered China International Fund has done big deals with another undemocratic African government: Angola. The company, known as CIF, is building housing, highways and the capital's airport in Angola, which is one of China's leading suppliers of oil.

CIF is a private company, though its ultimate ownership is unclear.

But in embarking on these deals, it can count on high-level access to leading Angolan officials and a web of contacts to China's state-backed industries and companies, especially the Export-Import Bank of China, which funds many of the country's major overseas investments. CIF's directors are also believed to have ties to China's military and security forces, boosting their relationships with the country's communist leadership.

In the case of China International Fund and Guinea, it isn't known whether the company was working on the deal before December's coup that brought Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara to power. The British think-tank Chatham House recently reported that CIF had been working on a $1.6 billion investment plan for the country spanning infrastructure, housing, mining, transport, tourism, and food production.

In exchange, the company would theoretically gain access to Guinea's plentiful deposits of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, along with diamonds and gold. Mines Minister Mahmoud Thiam said the Chinese company "will be a strategic partner in all mining projects."

Thiam also said that new power-generating plants, railway links, and planes for both international and local air transportation are part of the deal.

Founded in 2003, CIF appears to be among the boldest — and best connected — of the Chinese investors in Africa. The company's Hong Kong business registration lists it as 99 percent owned by Dayuan International Development Limited, identified by Chatham House analysts as the parent company of China Angola Oil Stock Holding Ltd., which exports Angolan oil to China.

The remaining 1 percent is owned by CIF's chairwoman, Lo Fong Hung, who is also one of Dayuan's four directors and whose husband, according to Chatham House, has been a director of the Chinese government's two biggest investment arms.

CIF has become a broker for huge infrastructure projects in Angola, tapping financing from China's Exim Bank and secured by the African nation's oil revenues. Among the company's projects: 215,500 housing units totaling more than 333 million square feet (31 million square meters); the restoration of 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of highway and 1,665 miles (2,680 kilometers) of railway; and the construction of the capital's new airport.

Many of those remain in the planning stages, however, and some have run aground. Chinese media reports say other Chinese subcontractors have complained that CIF was failing to pay for work and materials supplied for some other African construction projects.

"Some projects have been slow to get off the ground, and there are bottlenecks," said Chatham House's Weimer. "They are not delivering on their timelines."

A receptionist who answered the phone at its Beijing office said she had no information about the Guinea mining deal and there was no one available to comment. A woman who answered the phone at the fund's Hong Kong office declined to comment and there was no response to questions faxed to the office.

Despite CIF's deep connections to the government, Africa expert Stephen Morrisson said the company likely hatched the deal on its own, without excessive Chinese government involvement.

"Often these decisions are taken quite independently and often there is little internal policy coordination or deliberation," said Morrisson, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.


http: //news.yahoo. com/s/ap/20091024/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_africa_risky_business_1

Chinese premier pledges funds, aid to Africa

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – China's premier on Sunday pledged $10 billion in low interest loans to African nations over the next three years and said Beijing would cancel the government debts of some of the poorest of those countries.

The announcement by Wen Jiabao looked to deflect criticism that China's investments in the continent were motivated purely by greed. China is one of the largest investors in Africa, along with the United States and Europe.

At a two-day China-Africa summit, Wen Jiabao also said China would build 100 new clean energy projects for Africa over the same period as part of an effort to help the continent deal with climate change issues.

"We will help Africa build up financing capacity," Wen said at the start of the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit. "We will provide $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries."

Concessional loans are ones that offer generous terms — better than market rates — to poorer countries.

China's inroads into Africa have come at a price for Beijing. The country has been accused by some in the West of ignoring Africa's needs and the dismal rights records of some of its countries while looking only to sate its hunger for the fuel it needs to drive its bustling economy.

China has, for example, been a key force in developing Sudan's vital oil sector even as the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum is accused of atrocities in the Darfur region. More recently, a $7 billion mining deal was signed between a little known Chinese company and Guinea's government — an agreement that came weeks after soldiers there opened fire on demonstrators and raped women in the streets.

But Wen said while many in the world have only now begun to take note of China's role in Africa, it was a relationship that dates back five decades and included helping the countries throw off the yoke of colonialism.

"The Chinese people cherish sincere friendship toward the African people, and China's support to Africa's development is concrete and real," Wen said at a forum that attracted leaders such as Sudan's Omar el-Bashir and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe — heads of state out-of-favor with the West.

"Whatever change that may take place in the world, our friendship with African people will not change," Wen said. "Our commitment to deepening mutually beneficial cooperation ... will not change, and our policy of supporting Africa's economic and social development will not change."

Wen said that as part of its support for Africa and growing trade ties with China, Beijing would take eight new measures over the next three years, including helping Africa build up its financing capacity.

Along with the loans — double the amount pledged two years earlier at a similar summit in Beijing — Wen also said that for the most heavily indebted and least developed African nations, China would cancel their debts associated with interest free government loans set to mature at the end of this year.

The caveat was that the debt forgiveness was restricted to those nations that have diplomatic relations with China — a condition likely to rankle critics who argue that China has made its support conditional on countries backing it fully, including by renouncing ties with Taiwan. The overwhelming majority of African nations have diplomatic ties with China.

Wen said that China would also build energy projects that cover solar power, biogas and small hydro plants. Other initiatives under the plan include boosting training of African professional, new schools, and phasing in zero tariff treatment for 95 percent of the products from the least developed countries that have relations with Beijing.

The steps are the latest in a growing trade relationship between China and Africa — a push that has seen trade grow tenfold in the past eight years to reach almost $107 billion by the end of 2008.

The latest pledge for loans builds on $5 billion that China had pledged to the continent during the 2006 Sina-African summit. That gathering in Beijing was widely seen as a catalyst fueling growth in Africa, a continent ravaged by some of the world's highest poverty rates, a battle against the AIDS epidemic and chronic internal conflicts.

http: //news.yahoo. com/s/ap/20091108/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_china_africa