Original sourc: Shanghai Daily
The US Secretary of State’s remarks likening China’s presence in Africa to “new colonialism” aims to estrange relations between China and African countries.
The comment made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Lusaka, Zambia, last weekend aims to maximize the US interests in Africa and ensure its interests will not be eroded, said He Wenping, director of the African Studies Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The “new colonialism” talk lacks historical evidence or comprehensive and powerful facts and the United States is viewing the growth of Sino-African relations through some outdated “cold war mentality,” He said.
On the one hand, the United States is rebuking China over “robbing” Africa of resources, on the other hand, it is expanding investment in Africa’s resources sector and importing more oil from Africa.
Sixteen percent of the United States’ oil imports came from Africa in 2006. The proportion is expected to go up to 25 percent in 2015, according to the US National Security Council.
Exxon Mobil Corp has banded together with other investors to invest in laying an oil transport pipeline in Chad to facilitate oil exports to the United States. The pipeline project, costing around US$3.7 billion, is the largest private investment in infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa.
China’s current oil imports from Africa amount to less than one third of the United States’ oil imports from the continent.
It’s baseless to say China is exploiting the African market through sales of cheap goods since the low-priced goods actually provide affordable commodities to Africans and improved their livings, He said.
There are not attached conditions in China’s investment and aid to Africa, reflecting the country’s stance of not interfering in African countries’ civil affairs and fully respecting their independently chosen growth paths, He said.
The label of “new colonialism” should never be put on China, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in his visit to seven African countries in June 2006.
“China had suffered about 110 years of colonialism since the Opium War in 1840. The Chinese people understand the pains brought about by colonialism and know colonialism should be battled against. This is one of the reasons that we have long been supporting liberation and revival of the African nations,” Premier Wen said.
Hillary Clinton said she was concerned that China’s foreign assistance and investment practices in Africa have not always been consistent with generally accepted international norms of transparency and good governance.
“We saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave … And when you leave, you don’t leave much behind for the people who are there. We don’t want to see a new colonialism in Africa,” she said.
It’s not the first time China has been criticized for “new colonialism” and such rebukes are increasingly prevalent in some Western countries, especially some original colonizers of Africa.
A report by US think tanks, including the RAND Corp, the Heritage Foundation and the US Council on Foreign Relations, claimed China was one of the largest rivals for the United States in Africa in the future and urged development of full strategies to weaken China’s influence in Africa.
