From: Biniam Haile \(Swe\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Nov 07 2006 - 01:56:31 EST

China seduces Africa while West watches

News Article by REUTERS posted on November 06, 2006

 

BEIJING, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The Sino-African Forum on Cooperation, held in Beijing over the weekend, must be "one of the largest gatherings of national leaders ever held in a continent that is not their own," writes Britain's Independent.
We in the West ignore this important gathering much to our peril, it says, arguing that the China-Africa relationship makes sense because Africa has what China desperately needs: natural resources to feed its galloping industrialisation. China, on the other hand, has the money and expertise to extract Africa's riches and give them value.

True, China has no intention of playing policeman. It's not going to restrict its deals to African governments which respect human rights, or ones which aren't corrupt. After all, it was China that saved Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe from bankruptcy, the Independent says. Forget international action in Darfur as long as China needs Sudan's oil, it continues. The list of worries about China's involvement in Africa goes further: China's cheap textiles hurt local textile industries, they rarely transfer technology and often bring Chinese workers for construction work.

But China's successes is largely a reflection of the West's failure to engage with Africa on such a level, the editorial says. Sub-Saharan countries are treated like the poor relation receiving Western aid, not a potential trade partner. So, for all its flaws, the Independent's argument runs, China's involvement is not all bad and the West should use it as an inspiration to start thinking differently about its one-way relationship with the African continent.

South Africa's Business Day also sends a somewhat cryptic but nonetheless clear message to the West: "Those who might have cause for concern that their past primacy on the continent is under threat should realise that international relationships are dynamic." China's involvement on the continent should not be viewed as a counterbalance to the west, but as an emerging market that needs what Africa has to offer.

According to another African voice, Africa-China cooperation is certainly welcome, but should be on an equal footing, Nigeria's Daily Trust says. Africa has to make sure it doesn't just sell its primary goods, but sets targets for exporting semi-finished and finished products. China, for its part, should apply the same industrial practices to its African labour force as it does for Chinese workers.

John Metzler, China Post's United Nations correspondent, looks at the China-Africa relationship since the early 1960s and 1970s, when China courted the continent for purely political reasons. Nowadays, the important story is the two-way trade of $50 billion between the two sides, a figure that jumped from $10 billion in 2000.

As a result of Beijing's "commercial road shows" in Africa, the author says, Angola is now China's largest oil supplier and Sudan is not far behind. Agreeing with The Independent, Metzler concedes that China's involvement in Africa has had benefits for the continent. For proof he points to economic growth rates of 4 to 5 per cent which several African countries have notched up lately.

However, "(while) Beijing pledges 'non-interference' in its political dealings with African states, the business bottom line remains that China is using the Dragon's embrace to corner the raw material markets to sustain its corporate State," the author concludes.


International Herald Tribune columnist Philip Bowring also compares China's wooing of Africa in the 1960s and today. The situation nowadays is different, of course, but some common themes remain: China is an opportunity for Africa to be less dependent on the West and the fact that it is not a fan of foreign interventions is soothing for some African governments, says Bowring. After all, China is investing in Sudan's oil production, the West gets much of its oil from oppressive Saudi Arabia. But some African industries see China as a threat rather than an opportunity. "Managed well, China could bring real development benefits to Africans," say Leni Wild and David Mepham, authors of a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research, quoted in Britain's Guardian. "Managed badly, China's role may lead to worsening standards of governance and more corruption. As a one-party state, China's foreign policy is not driven by a concern to promote human rights, in Africa or elsewhere."

 

 

African Americans have been ignoring a huge opportunity of becoming economic players with the alliance between Africa and China.

 

Last year, the 53 nations of Africa earned $64 billion from exports to the United States.  More than 90% of that was from oil & gas and strategic metals.

 

It is not that China is ignored by the United States.  Rather, it is because there is little America can do to stop the rise of China as the supreme superpower of the 21st Century.  For example:

1.                China has the fastest growth in leading scientists and engineers.  In fact, most of the top political leaders in China are engineers.  Compare that with American political leaders who have mostly been lawyers, you begin to see why the world is “Looking East”.

2.                China is not fooled by the rabbinic lies incorporated into the Judaic-Christian belief that all things are centered upon the concept of “a chosen people”, or better known today as Zionism. In other words, if you bless the “Jews” God will bless you.  Therefore, one must support the Zionist state of Israel under all circumstances.

3.                China, through patience, hard work, tight control of its people and economy has captured all of the major markets of the world.  It earns more than $250 billion from exports to the United States alone.

4.                China’s economy had $109.4 billion in exports and $167.3 billion in imports.   This is averaged over a 5 year period between 2000 and 2004.  This compares to America’s average of $265.8 billion in exports and $496.5 billion in imports. 

 

In 2005 China’s exports to the United States was $247 billion.  This was more than its average of $109.4 billion between 2000 through 2004 for worldwide exports.  This reflects China’s huge economic growth from its export earnings.  China is the best story for Africa, this is an undeniable fact. 

 

Japan’s Advent of Complacency

As was the case with the United States and Western Europe, Japan is experiencing the phenomenon of the aging “Baby Boomer” generation.  It became an economic superpower as a manufacturer of goods that America and other nations of the world bought.  Today, Japan is experiencing a problem with a decreasing birthrate and its younger workers not wanting to do the type of hard, greasy manufacturing work that their parents did.  This caused the Japanese government and businesses to create a national vision with the word monozukuri which means “making things”.  In other words the art of doing things with the hands.  Reporter, Juri Kageyama, recently reported in the AP that Japanese increasingly “look down on production work as dirty, dangerous, and tough”.  This sounds very familiar to the state of conversation among millions of African Americans today.  Japan, like America, is becoming a retail and service nation.

 

African Americans

African Americans must seize upon this fact and begin to target its youth in key economic areas of growth.  This calls for a refocus on training and/or education that targets key areas of trade.  There must be less national focus on Affirmative Action and other traditional social agendas and more strategic focus on getting Blacks trained as merchants.  Why merchants?  This will partly be answered in a section that follows.

 

African Courtship

 

Africa, EU discuss entrepreneurship in Belgium

Published: 17-NOV-06

Johannesburg – A business forum opened in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday to generate investment opportunities between African and European entrepreneurs.

The forum forms part of the European Development Days and would see 17 African heads of state participate in a roundtable on governance in Africa on Friday.

1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Louis Michel would conclude the conference with a joint news conference. -Business in Africa Online

http://www.businessinafrica.net/news/southern_africa/432095.htm

 

The European Union nations have been the biggest benefactors of Africa’s vast raw resources.  This includes Israel.  The EU was recently able to muster only 17 African heads of state at its entrepreneur forum in Belgium.  The African nations must wise up to the fact that the biggest profiteer from its diamonds is Belgium followed by Israel.  Again, the solution is in the Black Universe establishing its own distribution system in the United States and other areas of the world.  In middle schools and with augmented education in America we must prepare our youth for this.

 

Africans

Again I say, the African Union must enforce policies so that its nations get better prices for critical raw resources.

 

A New Perspective on Exports

For worldwide export of products, there were a grand total of 174 unique products.  China and America both exports 172 unique products.  However, the continent of Africa exports 173 unique products.  That is 173 out of 174!  Japan exports 166 unique products.  Germany exports 171 unique products.  The fact that the continent of Africa, with a population that is less than the country of China, exports virtually the same amount of unique products as America, China, Germany and Japan indicates the industrialized nations need Africa’s products.  There are three main problems.

1.                Africa sells its raw products too cheap.

2.                Africa is not producing enough finished goods from its raw products.

3.                The African Diaspora has not invested into Africa as much as it should.

 

Because Africa is exporting 173 out of a total of 174 products, we must seriously look at the price these African nations are receiving for those products.  This also means that at least one African nation is producing virtually any of the finished goods that the rest of the world is producing.  African people in America, Latin America and Europe must have programs that create a distribution system for these African produced products.  This educational process should begin in Middle Schools.  Eighth graders typically learn about GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and other things related to commerce.  Too often, the practicality of this and how it relates to them and Africa is not stressed.  This is sometimes because there are other students in the class of other nationalities who might raise an issue with such focus.  However, the Ashkenazim and other groups have their own programs outside the public school system which provide their youth with the tools and the vision that they are the merchants and leaders of tomorrow.  How do we solve that?  Within the public school systems, you augment it with a career day that is consistent, with involvement from Black men and women who can provide practical experience to the youth.  Black adults, and I’m not talking about the teachers, must be the ones who guide these Black youth and plant within them the seed of vision.

 

Rice: U.S. Concerned About Rising China
Nov 17 8:09 AM US/Eastern

By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer

 

WASHINGTON

 

….. "There are concerns about China's military buildup," Rice told a television interviewer. "It sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role." ……

 

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had not seen the report, but "we are against the attempt by any country or any organization to interfere with China's internal affairs under the pretext of the Taiwan question and impede our reunification course."

 

The report said China's global reach extends beyond East Asia to the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America, where China "is coming to be regarded almost as a second superpower."

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/17/D8LER9E80.html