Asian Eyes on Africa?
China’s increasing presence in Africa has become clear in the past couple of years. (For my own writing on this – with links – see here, here, here, here and here.) The Asian continent’s other giant, India has been watching, and has designs on increasing its presence in Africa. China’s role at best represents a dual-edged sword, and in the most realistic assessments Beijing represents a potentially dangerous and destabilizing force for most of Africa. Perhaps India will provide another option for African countries faced with the enticement of Chinese investment or none at all.
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
[…] The sometimes problematic nature of China’s relationship with Africa is nowhere more stark than in Beijing’s engagement with Sudan (see also here, here, here, here, and here). Over at The New Republic Eric Reeves, one of the foremost authorities on the crisis in Darfur, has a piece telling us to be wary of China’s support for UN Resolution 1769, in which the United Nations Security Council authorized a joint UN-African Union (AU) force to intervene in Darfur. Although China did vote to support the resolution this year (last year they abstained so as not to breach Khartoum’s sovereignty, or so they would have had you believe) Reeves would not be so fast to heap praise on Beijing for coming around: “Winning China’s support came at a significant price. Khartoum’s staunchest ally voted for the resolution only after it had helped to secure the elimination of key provisions.” Reeves also shows that there is blame enough to go around among Western powers and not just China. […]
April 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
[…] For all of the talk about China and its potentially deleterious impact on Africa, there is another potential player in African affairs from the east. India may well provide a useful foil to China, and perhaps even will present a somewhat less predatory visage. […]