An Independent Commission Report
Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations,
In February 2006, Angola surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the number one supplier of oil to China. China’s growing role in Africa has generated wide speculation and heated argument. In adition to financing multi-billion-dollar oil-baked loans to Angola, rehabilitating the Banguela railroad, and constructing a new airport, China has acquired equity positions in several oil concessions. These developments may increase China’s potential influence in Angola in the coming years. Talks between Sonangol and Beijing’s Sinopec on the construction of a multibillion-dollar refinery in Lobito, however, collapsed in early March 2007. 28
For both the Angolan and Chinese perspectives, the relationship is pragmatic and strategic. Angolans receive loans at lower rates than they would from commercial banks, while the Chinese receive guaranteed oil deliveries at world market price as well as business for Chinese companies. 28
To be sure, there are causes for concern. There is a lack of transparency about Chinese operations in Angola. Loans from Beijing are funding major infrastructure projects, directed by Chinese firms and staffed with Chinese labor. But what’s unclear is how much money is on the table, how contracts are awarded, how many Chinese are in the country, and how many Angolans are actually employed by Chinese companies operating in Angola. Furthermore, Angola should be wary of outsourcing jobs Angolans could do themselves; importing labor may be sowing the seeds of future resentment. Nonetheless, China is making significant contributions to Angola’s development by building and rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, and sanitation systems. 28-29
There are some interesting ideas in this article and also a phrase that might be undetected by most readers. It is highly precient and fully in accordance with my predictions regarding the future of the Chinese-African relations. Let me highlight it for you
“Furthermore, Angola should be wary of outsourcing jobs Angolans could do themselves; importing labor may be sowing the seeds of future resentment. “
Let me be the first one to make this predicament. At one point in the next ten years there will be xenophobic attacks against Chinese in Africa that will kill hundreds of Chinese. These seeds of resentment are already sown. Chinese are getting to Angola and do not plan to leave. They go there and work for less money than Africans. They start small business and steal jobs from Africans. In Luanda you can see some Chinese selling roasted peanuts in small plastic bags. This is what extremely poor Africans do. You find Chinese everywhere, getting special deals and special treatment. One day Angolans will say enough is enough. And so will Nigerians, Tanzanians, South Africans or Kenyans (these are the 4 African states with the largest Chinese diasporas.) The tragedy is that we can see it coming, African intellectuals see it coming as well, but nobody talks about it. The only reason anti-Chinese treatment or even Chinese slaughtering has not yet happened is because Africans still don’t know too much about Chinese. They are exploring these new strangers. They don’t have any historical strong feelings against them. But when they will realize that Chinese are acting against their interests they will revolt. And people and politicians will be shocked and appalled. And we would ask ourselves how did this happened.
Source
http://codrinarsene.com/2008/10/angola-china-relations/
In 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa sued the government, claiming that its members were being discriminated against because they were being treated as whites and thus failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions reserved for victims of apartheid. The association successfully argued that, since Chinese-South Africans had been treated unequally under apartheid, they should be reclassified in order to redress wrongs of the past.
This is not the first time the classification of Chinese in South Africa has changed. In fact, the racial status of Chinese-South Africans has often shifted with the nation’s political climate and its international relations.
The first significant group of Chinese came to South Africa in the early 20th century, before a formal system of apartheid existed, to work in the gold mines. They were not encouraged to settle permanently and by 1910 almost all the mine workers had been repatriated. Those who remained struggled with racism and lived in separate communities based on language, culture and socio-economic status.
As apartheid became enshrined in law with the ascendancy of the Afrikaner government in the late 1940s, the Chinese were classified as “colored,” forced to live apart from whites, and were denied educational and business opportunities along with the right to vote. But after South Africa established an economic alliance with Taiwan in the 1970s, Taiwanese immigrants were welcomed as “honorary whites,” and other Chinese in South Africa began to be treated more like whites. Although they never attained the formal “honorary white” status of Taiwanese, Koreans and Japanese in South Africa and couldn’t vote, Chinese-South Africans were no longer required to use segregated facilities, and in the early 1980s they were exempted from some of the discriminatory laws that applied to other non-whites.
After apartheid ended in the early 1990s, the legal status of Chinese has remained in a gray area, though they’ve generally been lumped together with whites and denied the post-apartheid benefits available to other non-white groups.
South Africa has seen waves of immigrants and investment from China since 1994, and today there are as many as 300,000 Chinese living in the South Africa. But the new court decision is unlikely to benefit most of them or trigger another mass migration– it applies only to those Chinese who were South African citizens before 1994 (and their descendants), a much smaller number of around 10,000 to 12,000.
Source
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/06/19/in-south-africa-chinese-is-the-new-black/
28-June-2007: Chinese products have taken over the international market and there is a new export too: language. As nations watch the Chinese economic growth and its penetration into Africa and other continents, a side-story is developing.
Kenya is already eyeing the Chinese market and has a tourism website in Mandarin language. At the Language Solution Centre in Nairobi, Chinese language is taking centre stage—competing with others for space and time.
Established three years ago, the centre’s director, Ms Jacqueline Machaka, says this was the first language taught at the institution. Reason? “I knew China’s economic growth would translate to business relations with Kenya as well as the world,” said Ms. Machaka. “This meant that more translators would be needed to facilitate communication, so I capitalised on this opportunity.”
And true to her words, a Chinese news agency quoted Foreign Affairs minister Raphael Tuju as saying that translators would be required as Chinese tourists and investors start coming into Kenya.
The charges for a Chinese translator range from Sh28,000 to Sh42,000 for an eight hour session. Although Machaka did not know the language, looking for Chinese language teachers was not as hard as getting students to learn the language. “All I did was market the language,” said Ms Machaka. “ But a majority of the people did not see the sense in learning Chinese.”
Unperturbed, Ms Machaka managed to convince four students who started the language at the centre, which now has 80 students pursuing the language.
Already one of the first four is pursuing an undergraduate course in the language in China. Statistics show that nearly 25 million foreigners are learning Chinese abroad and over 2,100 universities in 85 countries have Chinese language courses. Apart from the cultural centre, some Egyptian universities have set up Chinese-language departments such as Cairo University, Al-Azhar University and Ain Shams University.
The three universities currently have more than 700 students learning Chinese.
By the end of 2006, two universities and 20 schools in South Africa were offering Mandarin, the official spoken language of China, which is based on the principal dialect spoken in and around Beijing. Besides universities, more overseas middle and primary schools have opened Chinese language courses. China is actively developing Chinese language education on the Internet, with many foreigners from 114 countries registering.
At a minimum of Sh 18,000, beginners at the Language Solution Centre take two and half months and a similar duration for the intermediary level. An advanced language course costs Sh 27,000. “China is more versatile in terms of job prospects , said Ms Machaka. Another institution teaching the language is ACK Language & Orientation School, which introduced Chinese late last year.
“A group of people going to China wanted refresher courses on Chinese,” said Rev Samuel Njoroge, Director ACK Language & Orientation School, “but the hardest thing was looking for a Chinese instructor.”
At the moment the school has one trainer as well as one student, but the director is least worried by the low numbers. He believes that the language is in demand, and it may be just a matter of time before it explodes in the country. “And we are ready for it. China is an emerging market and one cannot ignore that,” said Rev Njoroge.
Last year, State-run China Radio International launched its FM station in the country. The move is seen as a way for the Asian country to have a greater influence in Africa.
The station is transmitting 19 hours of programming in English, Kiswahili and standard Chinese.
In the same year, the government-sponsored the first World Chinese Conference held in Beijing with the aim of promoting Chinese language teaching. But not everyone thinks there is urgency to learn the language.
The director of Hekima Language Centre, Ndalegwa Amisi, said he did not think it was necessary for his school to invest in the language before they are able to fully conceptualise the Asian language. But to accommodate this new trend, domestic Chinese language teaching has quickly shifted its focus from home to overseas.
In addition to further to meet the needs of students learning Chinese around the world, the Office of the International Chinese Language Council has established 111 Confucius Institutes across the world, with seven of them in Africa. A Confucius Institute is a non-profit public institute with a mission of promoting Chinese language and culture as well as support local Chinese teaching.
But Kenya was the first African country to host a Confucius Institution. The Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi was formally launched in 2005 and saw its first set of students graduate last year.
But as Prof Sa Dequan, deputy Dean at the institute says, the initial target capacity of the Chinese language department was 30. “Students kept coming and we could not turn them away,” said Prof Dequan. At the moment, level one has about 80 students, while two has 15 and three has 20. The Institute has four Chinese instructors and tuition is free.
But students joining next semester may have to pay. In all, the professor had a candid confession to reveal: it’s not an easy language to master. “The Chinese language is hard to learn,” he said. Whereas the English language has only 26 characters, Chinese has over 60,000 characters. But that is half the story. Each character quite often has many meanings in isolation.
Prof Dequan said each character tells a story and has its history. “Even I don’t know all the characters. I can only learn so much,” he said. Secondly, the tonal system is hard for foreigners.
While the meaning of English words does not change with tone, the same is not true for Mandarin.
Four-and-a-half tones are used, meaning a single word can have many meanings. Ma, for example, can mean mother, horse, hemp, or be a reproach depending on tone.
How tones are used also varies extensively from province to province. How then can one appreciate so many characters? “Pinyin is a system of transliterating Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet, commonly used by foreigners to learn basic Mandarin,” said Ms Machaka.
Things get tougher when students start learning characters, but language experts say a person only needs roughly 5,000 words to be literate. But the unique language has its own distinct beauty.
One thing that is easier in Mandarin is the grammar.
“The grammar is not nearly as complicated as many European languages,” said Dr Frances Weightman, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds. “For example there are no verb tenses, no relative clauses, no singular or plural.” On the other hand, since the Confucius Institute is non-degree education, UON plans to introduce a Chinese degree programme next semeter commencing September.
United States International University is also offering Chinese. As a requirement to graduate, a student must learn at least one foreign language. And the language expansion in not unique to Kenya.Beyond the African borders, an independent school in Britain, Brighton College, became the first to make Mandarin Chinese compulsory for pupils last year, reflecting the growing importance of China on the world stage.
An estimated 100 schools in the UK are now teaching Mandarin, according to the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. In America in 1998, just 6,000 student enrolled in Mandarin programmes. But in 2006, the figure rose to 50,000.
But what is fuelling this expansion, and will it change the status of English as a global language? Impetus to the unprecedented upsurge of learning the Chinese language among Kenyans as well as other foreigners can be linked to China’s economic growth . China used to be called a sleeping giant.
Now, as the world’s fastest growing major economy, it is well and truly awake.
Asian Development Outlook 2007” predicted a 10.0 percent growth as to China’s economy in 2007, and a 9.8 percent expansion in 2008. China achieved a 10.7 percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) last year. On the other hand, recent statistics show China’s economy has grown by an annual rate of 11.1per cent in the first three months of 2007.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Zheng Jingping said China economy is capable of maintaining an annual growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent over the next 10 years. The rapid growth of fixed asset investment, backed by the high savings rate and a major inflow of foreign direct are some of the key pillar expected to push the economy.
In addition, political and social stability, notwithstanding accelerated industrialisation are also said to fuel the economic development of the Asian country.
Her overall Gross Domestic Product ranks sixth in the world after decades of rapid economic development, with the nation’s per capita GDP exceeding $1,200.Further spurred on by China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, this far-reaching trade liberalization agreement, China agreed to lower tariffs and abolish market impediments.
Chinese and foreign businessmen, for example, gained the right to import and export on their own, and to sell their products without going through a government middleman. By 2005, average tariff rates on key US agricultural exports dropped from 31 per cent to 14 per cent and on industrial products from 25 per cent to 9 per cent
While accession does not guarantee smaller trade deficits, full implementation of all WTO commitments would further open China’s markets to the world. And these forms the major urge for business men to learn Chinese.
Source
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1668
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students have studied abroad, but for political reasons Chinese institutions segregate their students. A more confident China, seeking to claim its place in the education universe, has taken the first step to more fully open its universities and student bodies to foreigners, especially from Western countries. This opening may mark the changing direction of the country’s education policy — from offering socialist education to students from developing countries to teaching language skills to partners in developed countries.
As China expands economic, political and cultural reach across the globe, seeking out new partners and allies, its efforts to participate in the education sector, such as the Yale-Peking Program, have also increased. International students, who pay higher tuition, live in more upscale dormitories and face lower academic requirements for admission than their Chinese counterparts, have been a public relations asset for China. The students also bring in some hard currency income. Seeking to make its universities among the best in the world, China may become more active in attracting the world’s best students. As the second-largest source of international students in the US, China is accustomed to seeing some of its best young minds flow out of the country, seeking better opportunities elsewhere. With more career opportunities in China today, its universities may see a trend in the opposite direction.
Indeed, China’s tradition of modern higher education — which came to replace the centuries’ old jinshi national examination system, based on classical literary learning — began when schools had to instruct students to attend universities abroad. The country’s oldest such institution, now Peking University, began as a language school, while Tsinghua, also in Beijing, had similar roots.
More recently, China sought to attract foreign students from fellow Socialist countries and from developing nations, especially those from Africa. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, China launched a programme to sponsor African students to study at its universities. The initiative was not without controversy. In 1988, riots broke out at Hehai University in Nanjing when Chinese women accompanied African male students to a dance, sparking an uproar amongst the student and local populations. The Nanjing Riots were the last in a series of confrontations prompted by the presence of African students in China during the 1980ís. The racial tensions were diffused by frantic diplomatic talks between Beijing and the participating African nations, and the conflict undermined Beijing’s international outreach attempts. But even today, China widely publicises its educational partnerships with Africa as evidence of its commitment to international development. Xinhua News Agency, which produces articles for the English-language People’s Daily, has reported extensively on these efforts, including a boost to 10,000 Chinese government scholarships and a particular focus on its donations to Unesco’s Africa department.
This focus on cooperation with developing countries, however, is fading in importance as China’s economic links with the West expand. Just as Western companies looking to establish businesses in China must set up partnership ventures with Chinese firms, international collaboration is becoming an increasingly prominent facet of Chinese education. The Yale-Peking University partnership is historic in that it is an English language, undergraduate opportunity, but similar projects are more common at the graduate level. Optimise, a business strategy magazine published in New York, profiled the China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai: 20 per cent of enrolled students are from outside China, and the school emphasizes useful skills for multinational corporations that hope to establish Chinese ventures.
China is trying to gain from partnering with top educational institutions around the world, much like Chinese corporations have been doing by entering into joint ventures: Universities seek to learn from their international counterparts to compete more effectively in the long run.
Chinese universities seek to attract international students, in part, because of the opportunity to turn their names, already well known nationally, into global brands in the manner of US Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale.
Foreign students pay higher tuition than Chinese students. At Tsinghua, for example, international students must pay between 20,000 (US$2480) and 42,000 yuan (US$5200) in tuition, depending on their choice of programme, while Chinese students pay approximately 5,000 yuan (US$620). Foreign students must either learn or improve their proficiency in Chinese, often in specially designed language schools within the university. In addition, the foreign students live together in more spacious and expensive housing. Such separate housing could be a concession to the lifestyles and preferences of international students or the administration’s attempt to maximise earnings. Accompanying the higher costs are services intended to reassure international students about the safety and desirability of a Chinese education, including health insurance as well as university assistance in dealing with immigration authorities and the local police.
Students from other Asian countries demonstrate growing interest in attending Chinese universities. But do international students themselves add to the academic caliber of Chinese universities? At the moment, international students at top Chinese universities are generally less academically distinguished than their Chinese counterparts. Foreign students are not required to undertake the rigorous Gao Kao examination, a multi-subject test which is the main determining factor for university admission and required of all Chinese university entrants. Instead, the foreign students simply must prove their proficiency at Chinese language through the GSK exam, or the Mandarin equivalent of the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, a requirement for admission into colleges and universities that instruct in English.
So elite universities undoubtedly turn away brilliant Chinese candidates and accept students who focus more on language instruction than other strategic disciplines. Unquestionably, the universities themselves are seeking to make China an attractive destination for foreign students, and for good reason. Among all top universities of the world, the mere presence of international students represents prestige. Likewise, the representation of students from other Asian countries supports China’s ambitions to become a “regional educational hub.” Writers and editors of The Yale Globalist — an undergraduate monthly magazine — recently travelled to China to research its educational system, and many of the international students they spoke with were either of Chinese heritage or from elsewhere in Asia. The students explained that their decision to study in China was prompted by an expectation of future opportunities. After all, China is on the road to becoming the largest economy in the world.
For 150 years China has dispatched students around the globe to pursue their education, and such education has influenced the nation’s domestic political and social environment. Yung Wing was the first Chinese student to attend Yale, and he graduated in 1854. His subsequent return to China led high officials to pursue military re-armament with Western technology. Some decades later, several revolutionary figures, like the writer Lu Xun, became radicalised after studying in Japan. Some international students may seek to stay in China after graduation, and their influence on politics and society remains to be seen.
Commensurate with China’s rise as an economic and political power has been a concurrent rise in Chinese soft power. China’s emerging status as a world leader has become an issue that urgently needs to be examined. The realm of higher education has been the focus of China’s most systematically planned soft power policy. Despite the significance of the subject, little attention is being directed to this rise of China’s power. There has been no research on the role of higher education in China’s projection and on the strategies and policy tools Beijing has used to boost its soft power through higher education.
The Concept of Soft Power
Coined by Harvard University political scientist Joseph Nye to mean the ability to change what others do or shape what they want, the term soft power is usually defined as culture, education, and diplomacy and providing the capacity to persuade other nations to adopt the same goals. This approach has been a fundamental part of military thinking in China for over 2000 years. Generations of Chinese leaders have adopted the stratagems and long-term planning stated in Sunzi’s Art of War of the 4th century BCE—a part of statecraft that looked to an integrated strategy to “win victories without striking a blow.” Another component of the concept, moral leadership by exemplar, also resonates in Chinese tradition. A main paradigm of Chinese governance is Confucianism, which operates on a reciprocal and ethical basis. A ruler is supposed to demonstrate moral excellence, taking wise decisions on behalf of his (very rarely her) subjects, to keep the state secure and prosperous.
Soft Power through Higher Education
Today, “winning hearts and minds” still composes an important part of the international higher education equation. Educational exchange falls under the rubric of soft power. Connections between institutions of higher education are a stabilizing and civilizing influence. China has been consciously promoting international exchange and collaboration in education. Indeed, China has been skillfully employing soft power to expand its global influence. One effective policy strategy has been the combination of higher education with the appeal of Confucianism—to offer Beijing a comparative advantage in its approach.
China’s soft power gambit is most evident in Africa. China has committed to contributing to the development of human resources in Africa. As of 2003, over 6,000 Africans had been trained as part of the program. Scholarships for over 1,500 African students are annually awarded by China, and many Chinese universities have established relationships with African institutions. China sent 10 teams of experts and launched 14 workshops in African countries over the past 5 years covering library science, dossier management, archaeology, biology, dance, and acrobatics. Chinese technical aid to Africa is becoming increasingly important in building China’s influence in the region. Medical, agricultural, and engineering teams have provided technical aid to African countries for decades to support everything from building projects to treating AIDS patients. This support for education improves China’s image, builds grassroots support in local communities, and creates a better understanding of China among the educated elite.
Soft power can be “high,” targeted at elites, or “low,” targeted at the broader public. Though soft power stems from both governments and nongovernmental actors, one can identify strategies and policy tools Beijing has consciously used to boost its soft power and thus increase its legitimacy as an emerging superpower. Their desires for national revival include returning to the position China had before a rising Europe began to eclipse it in the 18th century. Beijing’s innovative and most systematically planned soft power policy involves a two-way strategy: hosting international students and building up the Confucius Institutes worldwide.
Hosting International Students
Training future generations of intellectuals, technicians, and political elites from other nations is a subtle yet important form of soft power. This was the role of Great Britain at its imperial zenith and of the United States ever since the 1950s, and now China increasingly fills this role. China is recruiting students from all parts of the world, with particular focus on developing countries. These future generations of elites will certainly be sensitized to Chinese viewpoints and interests, with knowledge of the Chinese language, society, culture, history, and politics.
Increasing numbers of foreign students are attracted to undergraduate or postgraduate study in China. The enrollment of foreign students from 178 countries studying for advanced degrees at China’s universities has tripled in 2004 to 110,800 from 36,000 over the past decades, surpassing the flow of Chinese students to foreign universities, marking a 10-year high—an increase of over 40 percent from 2003. The belief that to get ahead, it behooves you to go to China, represents what 10 years ago people said about the United States. China’s Ministry of Education plans to host 120,000 foreign students annually by 2007, most of them in programs of Chinese language and culture. China is investing in promotion of Mandarin as one of the global languages.
The Confucius Institutes
The National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Hanban) is establishing Confucius Institutes to spread the teaching of Mandarin and Chinese culture around the world. The goal is to quadruple the number of foreigners studying Chinese to 100 million by 2010. The first Confucius Institute was inaugurated in Seoul in November 2004. Since then, the institutes have opened in cities such as Stockholm, Perth, and Nairobi. More than 85 of these institutes have been established worldwide, and Beijing aims eventually to open some 100 of them. In many ways the institutes are patterned after the British Council, Goethe Institute, or Alliance Fran?aise. The Chinese government recently committed nearly US$25 million a year for the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language.
However, the Confucius Institutes differ in significant ways from the long-established agents of French and German culture. Those European organizations are government agencies and fully dependent on state funds for their operations, but they locate their offices in normal commercial locations, wherever their governments can rent appropriate space. There is no attempt to integrate them into their host societies via institutional linkups. In contrast, the Confucius Institutes are being incorporated into leading universities around the world as well as being linked to China not only through their Hanban connections but also by supportive twinning arrangements with key Chinese universities. The London School of Economics, for example, is setting up an institute using arrangements under which it will cooperate with Tsinghua University. Not only will the Confucius Institutes immediately benefit from the prestige and convenience of becoming parts of existing campuses, the latter will also have a vested interest in supplying the institutes with staff and funds. The more successful the institutes, the greater potential for them to be used as agents of Beijing’s foreign policy in the future. The institutes are a small but significant part of what seems to be the equivalent of a soft-power offensive via the promotion of Chinese language and culture as well as preparing the way to raise Mandarin toward the status currently enjoyed by English.
Conclusion
China’s projection of soft power in higher education has challenged both the traditional and more recent explanations of the political economy of international higher education—characterized, respectively, by North-South imbalances and asymmetries and a strong orientation for international market share. Moreover, this is happening as China aspires to become the new focal point of educational and research excellence, but many Western countries are reducing investment in their flagship universities, and Japan is disinclined to increase the scientific capacity of its greatest institutions of higher education. China’s use of international exchange and cooperation in higher education as an exercise of soft power is unprecedented and has gone far beyond the comfort zone of the traditional theories. It is thus both theoretically and practically significant to observe how Beijing endeavors to create a paradigm of globalization that favors China, portrays itself as a world leader, and attempts to better position itself in a multipolar, post-Cold War environment.
Source
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number46/p24_Yang.htm
More and more, China seems to be taking up any commodity that can be had from Ghana. From copper waste and scrap, timber and natural rubber to aluminium waste and scrap and vegetable products are being exported to the upcoming Asian superpower.
Cocoa is the latest addition to the list. Ghana is to export 6,500 metric tonnes to China this year, says Isaac Osei, chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
This uptake of cocoa is meant to pay for the construction of the ongoing hydro-power project at Bui, north-east of the capital Accra. Government sources indicated last year that an arrangement had been entered into where cocoa production would be increased to supply extra cocoa to China.
Trade between the two countries has blossomed over the years, with China benefitting most.
By 2000, exports to China totalled only 25 million dollars with imports of 93 million dollars. Exports grew to 32 million dollars in 2003 with imports of 180 million dollars. In 2006, the figure went up to 39 million dollars for exports while imports surged to 504 million dollars.
Despite the Bui project, some Ghanaians are concerned that China is benefiting from trade liberalisation by African countries while the same is not true the other way round. Virtually every African country has opened its doors wide to cheap Chinese imports.
Osei pointed out in April this year at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting in Accra that Ghana’s efforts to promote cocoa trade with emerging industrial giants such as China and India were being undermined by trade tariffs applied to developing producers.
Osei said developing countries such as Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire faced higher tariffs on cocoa imports to China and India than less-developed producers such as Benin, Guinea, Haiti, Togo or Uganda. “For us, it discourages investment in the cocoa sector here.”
There is disquiet within the cocoa industry because of the way consuming nations have continued to create distortions in the pricing of the commodity. Speaking on the same platform as Osei, finance minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said there was an imbalance in the cocoa pricing system and urged cocoa-producing states to join forces.
“The current cocoa-chocolate value chain is characterised by an imbalance where the manufacturing and processing end is well positioned at the high value end, compared to the cocoa producers who receive a low share of the final price,” he said. With China’s heightened visibility through cheap goods, some Ghanaians are particularly unhappy about the Asian state’s approach to Ghana.
Alfred Neimann, a commodity analyst at BMT Associates in London told IPS this development “is really surprising since China and India have maintained profiles as leading the development cause of the developing world.
“China needs to open up more and be flexible, especially when she is dealing with countries in the South. That is the only way that China can show that it is on the side of development,” he added.
Neimann said it is unfair that China — having taken advantage of the free trade environment to flood poorer countries, especially Africa, with cheap imports which may not necessarily be of high quality — turns round to prevent the flow of goods into its territory.
Gabriel Orji, an official working in the Nigerian ministry of trade, said that “there is no friendship when it comes to trade. What is happening between China and African states now is an evolving relationship that has to be properly defined and nurtured.
“Africa cannot move away from one predator only to get herself into the claws of another,” Orji said. The governments of African states should use their encounters with their Chinese counterparts to get them to see things from the African perspective, he added.
Getting proper rules in place is important for Ghana. The country is on course to meeting a national target of one million tonnes of cocoa a year by 2010. Consequently, it is keen to find more markets for its produce, apart from other attempts to add value to products locally.
China is a potential market and, with improved trade relations, Ghana is likely to sell more cocoa since local processing facilities are not strong on the ground yet.
An alternative is to find other ready markets. Already there have been diplomatic moves to export cocoa to Cuba but this will take time. Thus there is the need to find ways to create favourable trade environments devoid of hindrances. Employing about a million people in the six cocoa growing districts throughout the country, the cocoa industry is a major contributor to government revenue. It earned about 1.2 billion dollars last year.
Source
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807290954.html
By Badru Mulumba
Beijing Hotel straddles a patch of land in the prime area of Juba, separated by only a dirt, unpaved road from the sprawling United States consulate. Close to this hotel constructed out of cheap prefabs and metal bars, its name long a symbol of Chinese influence in Sudan, a Chinese Consulate is taking shape.
China’s consulate is by no means close to the size or stature of the gigantic US Consulate, but its establishment right across the American office, easily brings to mind China’s growing influence and its intentions to play a leading role in the South, a region it long neglected.
For the first time since the peace agreement, the Asian nation, has dispatched, a Consul General to Southern Sudan and will soon dispatch a delegation to the region as China tries to gain a foothold in this oil rich part of Africa
“He’s also the first Chinese special envoy to visit Southern Sudan,” Mr Zhang Qingyang, the Consul General, said of the impending visit by China’s Deputy Foreign Minister. “It’s the first high-level delegation to come from China to come and visit southern Sudan.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao has visited Sudan in the past, but he skipped southern Sudan on a widely publicised visit, his second, in 2007, to the continent.
The failure to visit the South was a curious omission given the size of the investments by the Asian nation in oil fields whose security relies largely on the south’s cooperation. Besides, the late head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement was on talking terms with Beijing.
When the Sudan peace agreement was signed, one of his first trips was to China.
Last year, China invited Sudan’s First Vice President and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, to an official visit in China - a tale tell sign of China’s interest in the region. Currently, the Chinese government, together with Malaysia and Sudan, run the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). Three quarters of Sudan’s export earnings come from China. The Sudan government estimates China’s investments in the country at about Chinese investment in Sudan at about $6.5 billion (Sh442 billion).
While China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, most investments are controlled from the north. While most oil which China is drilling, is found in the south, the money is paid to the north, and most Chinese workers, a roughly $6 billion Chinese built oil pipeline, and a coterie of Chinese industries are based in the north.
That may yet change, according to officials, as China opens the consulate in Juba, with a clear plan to tap into the potential of the less explored autonomous Southern Sudan region.
The consulate, the official said, paves way for heavy Chinese investments, and comes across as a preferred region for most Chinese firms now operating in the region. “Now as you know, many Chinese companies would like to come here to look forward to the chances, the opportunities for cooperation,” Mr Zhang said.
“In this case also I am sure also the southern Sudan government would assist or support them to settle down here to do their business while here.”
Mr Zhang said the Chinese government has a duty to look after her business interests while they are in Sudan.
“That’s our intention,” he said.
China’s backing of the Khartoum-based regime at the UN Security Council has in the past not gone down well with activists. The latest protest against the Asian country was during the Olympics, with Darfur activists staging a parallel Olympics to the official Chinese hosted games.
“We all know China is Khartoum’s, or Sudan’s, closest business partner,” American actress turned Darfur activist Mia Farrow said. China is Khartoum’s chief protector in the UN Security Council, according to Ms Farrow, “rendering toothless every single resolution” including the one of last year to bring peace keepers.”
“You know that for more than one year, I have tried to, even using the Olympics as a window of opportunity, to say to China that ‘please step up to your responsibility,’” the actress said in Juba early in the month, just a kilometre from the where the new Chinese Consulate is located.
“You have this leverage, unique leverage, with Khartoum, will you please use it for two things: to persuade Khartoum to cease the ongoing aerial attacks, and ground bombardments and to admit the peacekeepers as obliged one year ago’.
While China contributed of 300 engineers to the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur and supported the resolution behind the force, it had also sided with Sudan to have the force led by an African.
Source
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809030078.html
Patrick K. Wrokpoh
The government of the Peoples’ Republic of China says it has resolved to build 100 primary schools across Africa, with Liberia considered as one of the favorites to benefit from the gesture.
The special envoy on African Affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mr. Liu Guijin, said in addition to the construction of these schools, his government has planned to build 13 hospitals across the continent to assist with the medical needs of the countries that would benefit.
Addressing journalists from Africa who visited the Chinese Foreign Ministry recently when he briefed them on his country’s relationship with African nations, Mr. Guijin said that in addition to these gestures, his country has already signed series of relevant bilateral agreements with some countries on the continent for possible bilateral assistance.
Mr. Guijin, the former Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, said all African nations would benefit from this gesture stressing that under the agreement, some of the countries would get more schools while others will get less.
He added that his country is prepared to get these projects started but pointed out that some of the countries are faced with the problem of acquiring land where these buildings will be erected.
Envoy Guijin, who was also his country’s Ambassador to the Dulfur Region of Sudan recalled that during the recent G-8 summit held in Japan, his country made a commitment to countries across the continent that it would focus on the development of Africa, stressing that under the China, Africa Forum, his country remains a partner of Africa.
Ambassador Guijin made it clear that under the China, Africa Forum, which according to him will see his country following the principle of equality with its African partners, China would not allow its trade relationship to interfere with the political affairs or decisions of African countries.
He assured African nations that China would honor all commitment it has made to countries across the continent because as he put it China attaches great importance to its relationship with African nations.
In a related development, the Government of the Peoples’ Republic of China has given its position on the political situation in Sudan and the indictment of the President of that country, Omar Al-Bashir.
In its position released by Ambassador Guijin, when he addressed visiting journalists at the Chinese Foreign Ministry recently in Beijing, the Chinese government said it supports dialogue out of the conflict and wants all the parties to come together and engage in dialogue.
Ambassador Guijin said China supports the position of the African Union and the Arab League to bring the parties to the conference table stressing that the decision of the ICC to indict the Sudanese President comes at an inappropriate time when efforts are being exhorted to pursue dialogue in the matter
He said the decision of the ICC to unseal the indictment against President Bashir, would jeopardize and complicate the on-going process of dialogue being pursued by the AU and the Arab League.
Source
http://allafrica.com/stories/200808150431.html
28 August 2008
They arrived in trickles - a Chinaman, hawking cloth, needles, threads, selling cakes, eggs, shoes, cheap showy jewellery - bangles, trinkets, artificial flowers, electronic gadgets and the like.
That was as far back as 2000. Cameroonians were a little surprised, but they went about their businesses as usual until the Chinese became rather too many and began frying doughnuts!
The Chinese influx - both goods and humans - seemed to have taken off after Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited Cameroon in 2002.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China website reported then that Zhu met with his Cameroonian counterpart, Peter Mafany Musonge.
Zhu had said that "efforts of the two countries had in the field of cooperation have registered positive progress"; adding that "bilateral trade has made relatively big progress... that as Chinese goods are inexpensive but good in quality and fits the consuming level of the Cameroonian people, Cameroon is expected to import more goods from China so as to achieve greater progress with striking positive balance in bilateral trade."
To Musonge, this was "selfless assistance by the Chinese government over the past years and hopes to expand such friendly cooperation in all areas."Afterwards, Chinese goods flowed into Cameroon causing excitement amongst the locals because they were cheap and available. The cooperation and bilateral trade, however, turned out to be a multilateral affair.
A certain Pierre Essama Essomba, President of Media Council of Cameroon, in an interview in the China People's Daily Online of September 27, 2006, titled "China Not Practising Neo-colonialism In Africa" had sung the praises for Sino-Cameroonian "bilateral" relationship.
Said he: "China's cooperation and investment in Africa cannot be labelled as "neo-colonialism" because, unlike what European colonists did before, China-Africa cooperation has brought real benefit to African people..."
According to Essama Essomba, "we African people welcome Chinese goods because they are both affordable and reliable. We hope more small and medium-sized Chinese enterprises come to invest in Cameroon so that more people can be benefited...that such cooperation will not only bring the investment, but also technical expertise so that African people can learn to rely on themselves eventually."
True, even the man on the street agrees that Chinese goods are affordable. But now they know that Chinese goods are not reliable. Not by a long shot. They know that the Chinese have invested in Cameroon through cheap and fragile manufactured products, and that they (Cameroonians) have not learnt any technical expertise in exchange nor can they rely on themselves.
In this vein, both critics and Cameroonians think that China is dumping cheap manufactured products in Cameroon, thereby killing the local industries, if any exist.Now, nearly four-fifth of household appliances - needles, utensils, crockery, electronics, plastics, pens, etc - are "Made in China." They are found everywhere. They are cheap and they break as easily as fresh eggs.
Chinese Doughnuts
Cameroonians suffered a rude awakening when the Chinese began frying and selling doughnuts.The Post newspaper reported in July, 2005, that inhabitants of Bamenda were "taken unawares as Chinese traders flooded the streets with what they call "beigne Chinois" (doughnuts).
According to the report, the Chinese traders moved around town on tricycles selling doughnuts.The Chinese had practically killed the local doughnut business, sending many Cameroonian old women who had been making a miserly living out of it into the gutters. Eventually, they found it difficult to take care of their families.
The Chinese petty traders did not only frustrate the doughnut sellers, they also threatened plantain roasters, sellers of beans, corn and potatoes. Holidaymakers alike toiled day and night under harsh sun and rain against the Chinese hawkers, with no profit. All the while, the Chinese seemed to be trading tax-free.
The government was blamed for suffocating Cameroonians with taxes while allowing the Chinese to trade free of charge. Many wondered what Cameroonian youths were doing in China.
While Cameroonians at home were grappling with Chinese goods and their sellers, those in the Diaspora had similar sentiments. They too, believed that Chinese presence in Cameroon had made life easier for most people despite the fact that their products were unreliable. They were, however, not amused by the fact that the Chinese were doing business in Cameroon tax-free, while Cameroonian businesses were closing down.
Cheap, But Fragile
It is a popular generalisation that Chinese products are cheap but fragile; that Cameroon is now a dumping ground for them and that the products are killing local industry.Although these products are objects of criticism, most people are still blinded and lured by their "cheap" and "catchy" appearances. They seem to have no choiceAn importer based in Molyko, Claude Oguna, said the quality of Chinese products is generally bad everywhere."I buy Chinese products from other countries like Germany, Holland, Japan, Ghana, and Zambia; there is no change in the quality of these goods. China produces fake goods," said Oguna.
Another businessman, Fally Ngana, said the quality of Chinese goods imported to Cameroon is garbage."This has to do with the economy of Cameroon. People are incapable of affording the more solid products," Ngana said.
He blamed the Cameroon government for the influx of cheap goods, given that the common man doesn't reap any benefit from the taxes accrued from the importation of Chinese goods.
Most traders are complaining of competition between them and petty traders who have taken up selling cheap Chinese goods and are now topping the sales chart.
"We used to buy goods from Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries that produce solid goods, but now the business seems to be falling since most of our customers rush for the cheaper goods," Ngana added.
Yet another businessman in Buea, Magnus Chinedu, said he rushes for Chinese goods because they are cheap, and they are in high demand, besides, they are the only products in the market nowadays.
But he complained that he loses customers as soon as they discover the fragility of these products. The catch-phrase now is "kam go" (meaning buy today, come back tomorrow to buy the same product).
Women especially have been regular victims of cheap, fragile Chinese goods. Most of them are usually embarrassed when the heels of their shoes come off while crossing the street. As if this is not enough, electrical appliances make the biggest jinxes. A dealer in them, one Jude Mbabie, told The Post that "Chinese products are very unreliable and risky when it comes to electrical appliances. This poses a threat to technicians."
He recounted cases where customers keep running back to him complaining of burnt cables and distributors, and electrical surges which damage other appliances.A certain woman, Emilia Njango, who nearly lost her kitchen due to a short circuit, said "I think the Cameroon government should invest in the local production industry or better still, lay complaints to the Chinese government for them to improve on the quality of these goods even if it means increasing the prices."
All in all, both businesspersons and consumers blame the ills that accompany Chinese goods on the government.First, the government pays meagre salaries to civil servants, reason why they cannot afford better goods.
Second, the government seems to blame for condoning the importation of cheap, unreliable products, while not encouraging local production leaving Cameroonians with no choice but to resort to Chinese goods.
Source
http://allafrica.com/stories/200808280784.html?page=2
September 2, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – China told Sudan it should not rely on a veto to block a possible arrest warrant for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, according to a newspaper report.
Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Guangya Wang listens to speakers during a meeting of the Security Council on July 11, 2008 (AFP)
The daily Al-Hayat newspaper quoted an unidentified Sudanese official as saying that the letter from the Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered yesterday by Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, advised Khartoum “to deal with the ICC”.
The Chinese however promised to press European countries not to stand in the way of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution suspending Al-Bashir’s indictment, the official said.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on 10 counts of war crimes and genocide.
The African Union, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) called for invoking Article 16 which allows the UNSC to suspend the ICC prosecutions in any case for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.
However no country on the UNSC introduced such a resolution which would face little chances of surviving a vote in the UNSC particularly with the veto wielding members such as US, UK and France opposing it.
Al-Hayat said that Beijing will conduct extensive dialogue with the French government in light of proposals made by the latter last month to defuse the ICC row which included handing over two Darfur war crimes suspects to The Hague based court.
However Sudan rejected the French initiative despite recommendation by its foreign minister Deng Alor to accept it.
“In my assessment, these proposals are good” he said. Alor also pointed out that to end the crisis; the government needs to provide certain things and they submitted specific ideas about that.
Sudanese officials expressed confidence lately that China and Russia will use their veto power to freeze Al-Bashir arrest warrant.
Yesterday the headline news of the Al-Rae’d daily newspaper, issued by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), came under “Chinese veto awaits Ocampo”.
The UNSC cannot veto an arrest warrant issued by the ICC. Under Article 16 of the ICC Statute the UNSC only has the power to suspend ICC prosecutions through a chapter VII resolution.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
Source
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article28493