Africabeat

(Listen to me on the BBC!)

I was interviewed in Kampala last week on Chinese investment in Africa for the BBC program Business Daily. 

Sadako Ogata, the head of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and former head of the UNHCR, was the lead interviewee.  It was my very first radio appearance and I have a somewhat, let’s say, "thinner" CV than Ms. Ogata, and so understandably I was more than a bit nervous.

Fortunately, the BBC is awesome.  They cut out the stupid things you say, eliminate the uh…umm….,tone down the Americanisms, and make you sound smarter and more articulate than you actually are.  They even promoted me: I’m a political scientist, and I haven’t even started applying to grad schools!

You can listen to my portion of the Monday, June 25th edition of Business Daily by clicking here.

Howard French, The New York Times correspondant in Shanghai, explains France’s waning power in Chad and the increasing influence of the Chinese:

How did things reach this pass? During the long tenure of Jacques Chirac, France underestimated Africans and China alike, while mistaking America as its rival in a part of the world where Washington has never had grand ambitions or even much vision. (Read more)

Jeffrey Sachs criticizes the "extreme free-market ideology of structural adjustment" promoted by the IMF and the World Bank while praising Chinese investment in Africa.  Here’s why he is both right and incredibly wrong.

Jeffrey Sachs’s editorial at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, "China’s lessons for the World Bank," touches on recurrent themes of the China-Africa story: the hypocrisy of Western criticism and China as a viable alternative model.

Sachs attended the African Development Bank meeting in Shanghai a few weeks ago, and from his participation in high level meetings observe,s "The advice that the African leaders received from their Chinese
counterparts was sound, and much more practical than what they
typically get from the World Bank."

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I was watching the official announcement of the 2007 French Presidential Election along with about 200 French expatriates in a bar in Beijing on Sunday; my presence there was unplanned, but there I was, and then there Nicolas Sarkozy was, delivering his acceptance speech live on the big screen.

I’ve written elsewhere about how I appreciated Sarkozy’s gallantry in saying he respected Segolene Royal and her ideas.  Maybe the French Left collectively rolled their eyes, but it was a gesture I appreciated, if only because I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a president who acts presidential.

But then there was the last part of the speech, the part the nearly made me spray my drink on innocent spectators standing in front of me.

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When it comes to Africa, much of the West’s anti-China furor is directed at China’s Sudan policy: China has major oil interests in Darfur and has appeared completely unwilling to divest or use any of its considerable political power to persuade Sudanese President Omar El Bashir to accept an international peacekeeping force.  China’s pursuit of its oil self-interest, these critics charge, is bankrolling genocide.

However, last Friday, the US special envoy to Sudan, Andrew S. Natsios, made a point of praising China for its efforts to bring an end to the genocide in Darfur.  "I think they’re engaging much more aggressively."  High praise indeed.

Has China’s policy really changed, or are the media just getting bored of their old angle?  Maybe Chinese foreign policy really is suspectible to public opinion after all – if not always their own public, than the international public.  In addition to the oft-repeated China -> oil -> Darfur -> genocide story, there is also that old familiar line about China’s desire to be perceived as a legitimate, respectable international power and member of the international community.

"China’s U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, was critical to securing Sudan’s
participation in a recent international accord aimed at replacing a flagging
African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur with a larger U.N. contingent," a Washington Post article reported. Read more…

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is in Africa this week, prepping for the upcoming Franco-African summit.  He first stop was in Chad, where he offered additional troops (Fr) to help prop up Idriss Debby’s government, whose situation is now precarious in light of major gains made by rebel forces.  De Villepin is off to South Africa next.  (His visit to the Republic of the Congo was cancelled after Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the president, slipped and hurt his back.)

The biannual summit, to be held in Paris this coming February, will undoubtedly elicit comparisons to the October summit in Beijing. The international media have already been talking about rising powers like China (and India) stepping into Europe’s "backyard" and a France desperately trying to hold on to her "waning influence."  High drama makes for good copy and gives new angles to stale or
overreported stories.

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And so am I, apparently.  This article, which appeared in several publications back in August, explains that Japan, the world’s third largest oil guzzler (the United States and China occupying first and second place) gets ninety percent of its oil from the Middle East.  This obviously leaves Japan very vulnerable to oil shocks in that region.  Japan has recently started making overtures to oil-producing nations in Africa, but these are little more than fact-finding missions…

This is an annotated guide to South-South investment in Africa and its social, economic, and political consequences. Its primary focus is on China in Africa, but it will also take a look at the role of other emerging powers like Brazil and India.

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Does the U.S. have military designs in Africa?

Beyond
oil, U.S. military officials have cited "a growing terrorist threat" in
northern and sub-Saharan Africa to justify a program of stepped up
military engagement in the region. General James Jones, head of the
U.S. European command, has suggested the need to create a "family of
bases" across Africa that would range from forward operating locations
that would include an airfield and facilities to house 3,000 to 5,000
U.S. military personnel to "bare-bones" bases that U.S. Special Forces
or Marines could "land at and build up as the mission required." (See
Eric Schmitt, "Threats and Response; Expanding U.S. Presence: Pentagon
Seeks New Access Pacts for African Bases," New York Times, July 5,
2003). These new facilities would not be considered "formal" bases like
the growing U.S. base in the Horn of Africa in Djibouti, which has a
regular deployment of 1,800 to 2,000 troops stationed there. While new
basing arrangements are being worked out, a major increase in U.S.
military exercises and training missions throughout Africa will be used
to sustain a regular U.S. presence. (From "Militarization of U.S. Africa Aid: 2000-2005")

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While I have the feeling that
Elaine Meinel Supkis is just a little more to the left than I am, her blog,  Diplomacy: Winning Without Killing, is always worth a read.  Most recently, she offers a very funny and unforgiving look at why so much of American and European criticism of China – while valid – is also shamelessly hypocritical.

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