In Africa, China Is Both Benefactor and Competitor – Lydia Polgreen and Howard W. French
Continuing the series on ties between China and Africa, the New York Times reports from Zambia on the complexities of China’s role in the continent:
From South Africa’s manganese mines to Niger’s uranium pits, from Sudan’s oil fields to Congo’s cobalt mines, China’s hunger for resources has been a shot in the arm, increasing revenues and helping push some of the world’s poorest countries further up the ladder of development.
But China is also exporting huge volumes of finished, manufactured goods ” T-shirts, flashlights, radios and socks, just to name a few ” to those same countries, hampering Africa’s ability to make its own products and develop healthy, diverse economies. [Full text]
[Image: Shops selling Chinese products at the Kamwala Market in Lusaka, Zambia, by Benedicte Kurzen for The New York Times]
