China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Zimbabwe (41)

• Zimbabwe Says China Is Giving It Loans

  

  From the New York Times:

  Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ran Mr. Mugabe’s violent re-election campaign last year, was himself leading a delegation of officials from the governing party, ZANU-PF, in Beijing on Tuesday. An official in China’s Politburo assured the delegation that China’s longstanding policy of investing in Zimbabwe was unchanged.

  “We will encourage and facilitate more Chinese companies to seek development in Zimbabwe,” said Zhou Yongkang, the Politburo member.

  China and Zimbabwe have been close since Beijing supported Mr. Mugabe’s military campaign against white rule in the 1970s. In recent years, China has helped prop up the country’s economy as other foreign investors fled. Chinese firms have contributed, sold or bartered arms, airplanes, buses, hydroelectric generators and other goods to Zimbabwe, including equipment to eavesdrop on telephone conversations. China also supplied an elaborate blue tile ceiling for Mr. Mugabe’s mansion in Harare, the capital.

  » Read more
  • July 1, 2009 12:06 PM

• UN: Zimbabwe May Have Received Chinese Weapons Via Congo

  

  From VOA:

  The United Nations says it has “credible information” that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese weapons by way of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  The U.N. Security Council says Boeing aircraft delivered 53 tons of Chinese ammunition, meant for the Zimbabwean army, from the DRC to Zimbabwe this August.

  A U.N. statement released Friday says this does not violate an arms embargo on the eastern DRC, but does show that the country could be a transit point for weapons destined for other countries.

  Also from the Guardian, via Zimbabwe Times:

  Large quantities of weapons continue to be shipped to Zimbabwe via the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new report by the United Nations.

  Logistical support from Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe’s close allies in the government and armed forces of the strife-torn DRC is crucial to this process, evidence obtained by investigators suggests.

  The final report of the group of experts on the DRC, submitted to the UN Security Council last week, says it is possible that the Congolese armed forces “may also be exporting weapons and ammunition to other countries in the region”.

  The UN report skirts the issue of the precise route by which the weapons arrive in the DRC. However, unverified intelligence documents seen by the Mail & Guardian suggest that at least two countries in the Southern African Development Community are allowing shipments from China to land for onward transport to Zimbabwe via intermediaries including the DRC.

  The report and other documents seen by the M&G show that shipments of AK-47 rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades appear to have been routed through a sequence of intermediary countries. This is an apparent attempt to evade detection and subsequent outcry such as that surrounding the arrival of the Chinese arms ship An Yue Jiang in South African waters in June.

  » Read more
  • December 21, 2008 11:09 PM

• China Helps Fight Cholera in Zimbabwe

  

  From BusinessDay (Zimbabwe):

  China has promised to assist Zimbabwe with the latest crisis to hit the beleaguered African nation: a severe cholera outbreak. China has pledged $500,000 of vaccines for Zimbabwe. Reuters has reported that the crisis is due to worsen:

  The World Health Organisation (WHO) said last week the outbreak would likely to continue due to water shortages and poor sanitation facilities in the country, whose infrastructure has collapsed under the burden of a severe economic crisis.

  For more information on China’s involvement in Africa, please see the following article from China Digital Times:

  China Says Working With West to Avoid Darfur Strife

  China Concerned Over Situation in DR Congo

  Business as Usual Between China and Sudan

  » Read more
  • November 29, 2008 7:17 PM

• China Tells Mugabe “To Behave”

  

  Excerpts from this recent Telegraph article also supports the observation that news reports of China’s activities in Africa have dramatically decreased in the run-up to the Olympics. 

  A demand by China that the Zimbabwean government “behave” in the run-up to the Olympics lies behind Robert Mugabe’s surprise decision to open negotiations with the opposition.

  Beijing put pressure on Mr Mugabe to begin talks because of fears that the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe risked overshadowing the Olympics, according to government and diplomatic sources.

  China’s leaders, who have have long enjoyed a close relationship with Zimbabwe’s beleaguered president, feared growing protests in the run-up to the Games and so leaned on Mr Mugabe to agree to the historic talks which began on Thursday.

  Their move came after Russia and China together infuriated the West by blocking a United Nations Security Council attempt to impose sanctions on members of the Zimbabwean regime.

  [...]

  “China exerted diplomatic pressure on Harare for the protection of their own interests in this country, given the threat and risks of their economic investments under a new government. This explains the sudden change of heart by Mugabe. This is all choreographed.”

  The Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe is understood to have told Zimbabwean foreign affairs officials in Harare that his government expects Mr Mugabe’s administration to “behave” and help dampen international outrage over the recent elections.

  [...]

  One diplomatic source said: “Mugabe was told in clear terms by his Chinese friends that he has to behave and act in a way that will silence the international community.

  China does not want a situation in which the Olympics will be snubbed.

  » Read more
  • July 28, 2008 4:35 PM

• Why Has China Bought Mugabe a Mansion?

  

  In an opinion piece in the Telegraph, columnist Christopher Booker writes:

  It may not be surprising that, as befits any mad dictator, President Mugabe is now the proud owner of a palatial £4.5 million mansion in Harare and a similarly lavish country hideaway, each fitted with the latest electronic security systems, including anti-aircraft missiles.

  But why should all this have been provided for him by the People’s Republic of China?

  The explanation lies in a deal struck in 2005 whereby Mr Mugabe handed over to China his country’s mineral rights, including the world’s second largest reserves of platinum, worth £250 billion.

  [...]

  All over Africa we see a similar story. The ruthless but canny Chinese dictatorship props up equally ruthless and corrupt governments, as in Angola, in return for that continent’s fabulous mineral reserves. Britain, which once ruled much of Africa, has handed over its policy-making to the EU, which does little but make sanctimonious and irrelevant gestures.

  Yet this is the continent which, in 2005, both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown proclaimed was “at the top” of their international agenda. It was in the same year that, as the EU’s acting president, Tony Blair flew to Beijing to sign an agreement making the EU and China “strategic partners”. It is only too obvious which “partner’s” strategy is proving the more successful.

  » Read more
  • July 20, 2008 4:20 PM

• China’s Hands-off Foreign Policy a Collapse of Creativity

  

  Howard W. French, senior writer for the New York Times, comments on China’s non-interference policy as demonstrated lately in its  veto of sanctions on Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and its opposition to a warrant sought by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for the arrest of the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

  Plainly spoken, as a global actor, China remains an essentially reactive force, one keen to limit the power or the range of action of others in the name of principles such as democracy, human rights and self-determination.

  In recent months, in response to international criticism over its ties with Sudan and Zimbabwe, with the Olympics looming, China had labored to put its best face forward, sending peacekeepers to its Sudanese ally in a largely symbolic gesture of acknowledgment of the crisis in the Darfur region of that country.

  Beijing also quietly downgraded its ties with Robert Mugabe, an erstwhile friend and client. What is happening in Darfur has often been described as an ongoing genocide. Mugabe, for his part, places new demands on our vocabulary. Genocide does not fit, but what does one call a leader who takes an entire country down with him?

  What the week’s events suggest is a China that has coolly calculated that these modest gestures are enough, and that it is time to get back to business as usual, which means a foreign policy that remains mute about fires that burn on distant shores. And it is hard to read the words of Liu Jianchao, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, without feeling a blush of cynicism. The actions of the International Criminal Court “must be beneficial to the stability of the Darfur region and the appropriate settlement of the issue, not the contrary,” he said.

  [...]

  “Adopt a low profile and never take the lead,” was Deng Xiaoping’s advice to China’s diplomats early in this country’s reform era.

  After two-plus decades of booming growth and interests that extend into every corner of the world, an axiom like this sounds awfully self-centered and cramped. And for the people of Sudan and Zimbabwe, coming up with something more fitting to the times has become a matter of life and death.

  » Read more
  • July 19, 2008 5:34 PM

• China in Africa Round-up 07.17: Genocide By Proxy, Colonization Denied, and Anger Over Ivory

  

  New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof applauds the International Criminal Court’s recent request for an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, and turns his sights on China:

  If China continues — it is the main supplier of arms used in the genocide — then it may itself be in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Article III of the convention declares that one of the punishable crimes is “complicity in genocide”; that’s the crime that China may be committing if it goes on supplying arms used for genocide, even after the I.C.C. has begun criminal proceedings against the purchaser of those weapons.

  Beijing seems unabashed. Incredibly, China and Russia are acting as Mr. Bashir’s lawyers, quietly urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene to delay criminal proceedings against him. Such a delay is a bad idea, unless Mr. Bashir agrees to go into exile. [...]

  According to United Nations data, 88 percent of Sudan’s imported small arms come from China — and those Chinese sales of small arms increased 137-fold between 2001 and 2006. China has also sold military aircraft to Sudan, and the BBC reported this week that two Chinese-made A-5 Fantan fighter aircraft were spotted on a Darfur runway last month. The BBC also said that China is training Sudanese military pilots in Sudan.

  Likewise, Human Rights First, in a report on Chinese weapons sales to Sudan, suggests that Chinese engineers supervise arms production at the Giad industrial complex outside Khartoum. Chinese military companies have also helped set up arms factories outside Khartoum at Kalakla, Chojeri and Bageer.

  China Paper Decries Sudan’s Bashir Arrest Move

  Not unexpectedly, a different view was expressed in People’s Daily, China’s top official newspaper, which amplified Beijing’s opposition to pursuing charges of genocide in Darfur.

  Chinese officials have voiced concerns an indictment of Bashir could derail struggling peace efforts in Darfur, and Beijing also faces threats of protests over its ties with Sudan during the Olympic Games in August.

  On Thursday, the People’s Daily, official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, added to criticism of the ICC.

  “Don’t pour oil on fire,” said a commentary in the paper, adding that Darfur is “at a sensitive and crucial time.”

  “Alleviating this problem demands all sides exercise prudence, consult on an equal basis and strive to cooperate, not rashly push for sanctions, indictments, verdicts and even issuing arrest warrants.”

  China Boosts Peacekeepers in Darfur

  The AFP reports one more reason for China’s concern over the ICC move:

  A new company of Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur on Thursday, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000, a mission spokeswoman said.

  “They’ve arrived; 172 arrived so that brings the number of the Chinese contingent to 315,” said Josephine Guerrero, spokeswoman for the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission UNAMID.

  UNAMID is on high alert amid fears of a backlash after the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

  China-Africa Ties: Europe Should Not Panic
  

  In a wide-ranging interview covering questions on human rights violations, arms deals with Zimbabwe and Kenya, low quality imports to Africa, and interactions with Presidents Mugabe and Bashir, the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Zhang Ming, provided his answers to the African Executive.

  Q.  How sure are we that China is not coming to re-colonise Africa?

  We should look at things optimistically. India held the India – Africa Summit. Japan has arrived. Russia is planning to approach Africa. This should be good news to Africa. We won’t join military competition in Africa. China buys natural resources from Australia, and Canada among others but nobody raises eyebrows. Why are fingers pointed at us when we buy goods from Africa?

  Over the past 50 years, China and Africa have exchanged sympathy, support and assistance to each other in national liberation; maintaining peace and promoting economical and social development. Now, especially after the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was held in Beijing in November 2006, China and Africa have established and are constantly developing a new type of strategic partnership, featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange.

  Q. What message do you have for our European friends?

  I’d like them to know that China- Africa cooperation is an important component of international cooperation for development. It is neither targeted at any third party nor threatens the interest of any country. China takes an open, constructive and inclusive attitude to work together with the international community, including America, EU, India and Japan, among others, towards the peace and development of Africa.

  China and Africa: A Rewarding Relationship

  An opinion piece in the Times argues why the West should not assume that China’s influence in Africa is malignant:

  As the World Bank has noted, Africa presents huge investment opportunities for those willing to take risks to reap high returns. Africa has reversed six decades of decline in its share of global trade. Most countries there are growing at higher rates than the world economy.

  China’s increasing influence in Africa is often discussed without regard to this new situation. Chinese investment is a consequence of Africa’s growth, not the cause. Countries that grow 5-6 per cent a year for a decade need new roads, power stations and manufactured goods.

  Only countries ostracised by the West, such as the Sudan, have China as their main commercial partner. China’s presence there is a sign of its weakness, not its strength. China has been left with markets too small for Western investors. [...]

  But it is not Western governments that the Chinese appear to be upsetting. For years Western NGOs have sought to teach their domestic audiences that all that is required in Africa is small-scale, sustainable development. Oxfam encourages people to buy Africans a goat, some seed, condoms, a toilet, or even dung for Christmas. And all this comes with moral hectoring about Aids and the need for population control.

  No wonder the Chinese, with their no strings attached investment policies are so welcomed across the continent. They get things done.

  Anger at China’s Approval as Ivory Buyer

  The AFP continues its coverage of the UN decision this week to allow China to import elephant ivory from Africa under strict conditions with a recent article focusing on criticisms by conservationists:

  China’s approval for the first time as a bonafide buyer of ivory drew flak Wednesday from some conservationists who blame the country for stoking the illegal ivory trade.

  One of the world’s biggest consumers of elephant ivory, China was given the go ahead on Tuesday to participate as a licensed buyer in an upcoming auction of 108 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

  “This sale has literally given the green light to the international poaching syndicates and organised crime and will present a nightmare to poorly resourced wildlife enforcement agencies in Africa,” said Animal Rights Africa.

  “In real terms this represents the death of an estimated 7,699 South African elephants (1.8 tusks per elephant and 3.68kg per tusk),” said a statement from the organisation, which is based in South Africa.

  For background on this story, please see previous CDT posts, China Gets Permission to Import Ivory From Africa and UN May Legalize Ivory Sales from Africa to China.

  Chinese Trio Arrested with Elephant Tusks 

  In related news, The Daily Nation reports that three Chinese nationals have been arrested in Nairobi while trying to smuggle out processed ivory.  

  Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) confirmed in a statement that its officers working with counterparts from the Kenya Airports Authority have arrested three Chinese nationals – two women and a man - with 2.2 kilograms of processed ivory at the airport.

  The three were on their way to Harare, Zimbabwe when they were arrested and taken to the JKIA Police Station.  KWS spokesperson Kentice Tikolo said they failed to produce any valid CITES permits allowing them to travel with the carved trophies.

  Senegal Says Mediterranean Union Will Split Africa

  Reuters reports on the reactions in Africa regarding the launch of a Union for the Mediterranean. Mostly, there is fear that this may result in in a divided Sub-Saharan and Super-Saharan Africa. In many ways, China’s forays into Africa already reflect this devision. With the exception of Egypt, the vast majority of China’s activity is in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  The newly launched Union for the Mediterranean will divide Africa north and south of the Sahara and create a two-speed cooperation with Europe in which black Africa will be relegated, Senegal’s president said on Wednesday.

  In a statement issued in Dakar, President Abdoulaye Wade, an outspoken advocate of African unity, spelled out his objections to the 43-nation Mediterranean grouping inaugurated on Sunday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

  The new union brings together countries from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and aims to forge practical cooperation on issues like water, energy and education.

  Wade, who has in the past chided Europe for falling behind other more recent aggressive investors in Africa like China and India, said the European continent was seeking “new blood” by uniting with North Africa’s Maghreb.

  “But of course there are other obvious goals behind the Union for the Mediterranean initiative like Algeria’s oil and gas and Libyan oil,” he said.

  He said even in Libya, “there are Mediterraneanists not very inclined towards black Africa”.

  Zimbabwe inflation at 2,200,000%

  From the BBC:

  Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation has surged to 2,200,000%, official figures have shown.

  The figure is the first official assessment of prices in the troubled African nation since February, when the rate of inflation stood at 165,000%.

  Zimbabwe, once one of the richest countries in Africa, has descended into economic chaos largely blamed on the policies of President Robert Mugabe.

  The US and the EU have imposed targeted sanctions, such as a travel ban and an assets freeze, on Mr Mugabe and his close allies. 

  For background on China and Russia’s veto of the UN attempt to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, please see a previous CDT post, China Vetos UN Sanctions on Zimbabwe.

  » Read more
  • July 17, 2008 7:04 PM

• China Gets Permission to Import Ivory From Africa

  

  For background on this story, please see the previous CDT post, UN May Legalize Ivory Sales from Africa to China.

  From Reuters:

  China won the right at a U.N. wildlife meeting on Tuesday to import elephant ivory from Africa under strict conditions, a U.N. spokesman said.

  Four countries — Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — are permitted under a deal reached at The Hague last year to make one-off sales of registered ivory stocks.

  “China was accepted as a trading partner to import ivory from the four authorised countries in southern Africa,” said Juan Carlos Vasquez of CITES, or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

  To gain permission, Beijing had to prove it had the capacity to fight illegal domestic trade in ivory, which is used mainly in jewellery and carvings.

  This was an outcome feared by many. As one example, here are excerpts from an opinion piece in The Independent published prior to the announcement today by the U.N wildlife meeting:

  If the People’s Republic of China is licensed as an official buyer of elephant ivory at a UN meeting in Geneva today, it will be one of the biggest setbacks to have occurred in international wildlife conservation, and a dire threat to the future survival of elephants in the wild both in Africa and in Asia. [...]

  To allow it to do so would be disastrous. It does not matter how tight China’s enforcement procedures now are. Overnight the world market for ivory would balloon, providing myriad opportunities for illicit ivory to be laundered into the legal stock, and offering temptation to poachers right across Africa, where at least 20,000 elephants a year are currently being illegally killed.

  Disturbingly, the British Government, which has a vote in the meeting, looks as though it will go along with China’s wishes. Yet ministers will not come clean about Britain’s voting intentions. [...]

  Britain should vote firmly against allowing China to buy ivory. If it does not, and the bad times return for yet another threatened species, at least we will know where responsibility lies.

  » Read more
  • July 15, 2008 3:52 PM

• China Vetos UN Sanctions on Zimbabwe

  

  Below are excerpts from press coverage of China and Russia’s veto of a UN attempt to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and some of his key allies.

  From the Guardian:

  British and US efforts to apply punitive pressure on Robert Mugabe were abruptly undermined last night when Russia and China vetoed a UN security council resolution seeking sanctions against Zimbabwe.

  [...] South Africa, Mugabe’s leading regional patron, [...] argued that its neighbour is not a threat to world peace. China has resisted measures it sees as meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.

  [...] “The development of the situation in Zimbabwe until now has not exceeded the context of domestic affairs,” said China’s UN ambassador, Wang Guangya. “It will unavoidably interfere with the negotiation process.”

  From AFP:

  Wang Guangya said adopting the sanctions would have been “counterproductive” and would have undermined the South African-mediated talks between the rival Zimbabwean parties. “We support the efforts by the African Union and President Mbeki to bring all the parties together,” he added.

  From the Associated Press:

  Supporters of the resolution had expected Russia and China to abstain because of the depth of the crisis in Zimbabwe.

  From the New York Times:

  Once the Russians made it clear that they would exercise their veto, the Chinese, often leery of taking a lone stand on delicate human rights issues, followed suit.

  “The key thing is that the Russians decided to vote against it,” said John Sawers, the British ambassador to the United Nations. “The assessment here is that China would not have vetoed it on its own because they have a range of conflicting interests at stake.”

  Among other issues, China’s reluctance to criticize the human rights records of African governments it trades with has come under international criticism as the Olympics in Beijing draw near. Russia and China do not often exercise their veto together, the last time being in January 2007 when they blocked a Council effort to criticize human rights violations in Myanmar.

  China and Russia have a history of being at odds with the other permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Britain and France — over the Council’s role. The split over the interpretation of what constitutes a threat to international peace and security has been particularly resurgent in recent years and Friday’s vote was seen as a prime example.

  Also see previous related posts on CDT:

  * Behind the Reluctance of China and Africa to Criticize Mugabe
  * Liu Guijin on China’s Role in Zimbabwe
  * China’s Role in Zimbabwe

  » Read more
  • July 11, 2008 7:19 PM

• Behind the Reluctance of China and Africa to Criticize Mugabe

  

  From Howard W. French in the International Herald Tribune:

  [...] Western governments led by London and Washington look at Mugabe’s rule and see such a clear-cut case of evil that they are at a loss to understand why the rest of Africa - or China, for that matter, a Security Council member with fast-deepening ties with the continent - doesn’t rush to join in on their condemnation.

  [...] Paranoid African dictators look at the calls to denounce Mugabe and worry they might be next. The more democratically inclined know better. They see Washington’s embrace of dictators in places like Equatorial Guinea, or even former enemies, like the robber baron former Marxists who run Angola, and see a pattern of highly selective outrage. Might the fact that these countries - to name but two - are swimming in oil have something to do with escaping the Mugabe treatment?

  China looks at this inconsistency, too, and naturally suspects it is being discriminated against. The only African country that has drawn more Western critical fire than Zimbabwe recently is Sudan, for its genocidal campaign in Darfur. It’s an emerging oil power, too, but unlike so many African kleptocracies, its product flows east, not west.

  Also see previous CDT post China’s Role in Zimbabwe.

  » Read more
  • July 3, 2008 8:44 AM

• Liu Guijin on China’s Role in Zimbabwe

  

  Liu Guijin, China’s top envoy to Africa, is quoted in several news outlets with comments on China’s position toward the current situation in Zimbabwe:

  From Xinhua:

  China supports the mediation efforts taken by the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to try to resolve the Zimbabwe issue, Chinese special envoy Liu Guijin said Tuesday.

      Liu, China’s Special Envoy on African Affairs, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council, which opened here Monday.

      ”We hope that the stakeholders in Zimbabwe” — the ruling party, the opposition and other relevant political force — could “work together and make further efforts to stabilize the volatile situation there,” Liu said.

  [...]

  “We hope that the situation there in Zimbabwe could be addressed and the relevant stakeholders … with the assistance of the regional countries of the African Union and the international Community” could find a proper solution, he said.

  From Bloomberg

  Liu Guijin [...] said his government would take its cue from the African Union and Southern African Development Community. “It’s an African problem,” Liu said.

  From Xinhua

  “We think the issues concerning Zimbabwe should only be resolved by the Zimbabwean people and the international community could play a constructive role by promoting dialogue and reconciliation,” Liu said.

  From Reuters:

  Liu did not say whether China was prepared to use its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to block a U.S. draft resolution outlining U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe.

  “That is a pre-judgment,” he said in response to a question about a possible Chinese veto. He did not elaborate.

  From the Financial Times:

  A senior Chinese official on Tuesday defended his country’s aid to African states such as Zimbabwe and Sudan, underscoring Beijing’s resistance to imposing international sanctions in response to Harare’s alleged violations of human rights.

  Liu Guijin [...] said: “We don’t attach political conditions [to aid]. We have to realise the political and economic environments are not ideal. But we don’t have to wait for everything to be satisfactory or human rights to be perfect.” [...]

  He said that due to existing embargoes and sanctions “people are suffering there”.

  [Liu Guijin also] said: “While we are not satisfied with the environment in many developing countries, we don’t have to wait [for it] to be perfect.” He said that a century ago no traditional western donor would have met its own current criteria for granting aid to the developing world.

  He said China’s aid policy was aimed at a win-win situation in which both it and the aid recipients would benefit. That strategy lay behind its investments in infrastructure and mineral exploitation in Africa and elsewhere.

  » Read more
  • July 1, 2008 4:51 PM

• Kevin Rudd Urged to Pressure China on Zimbabwe Stance

  

  The Australian Federal Opposition says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should urge China to put pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. From ABC News, Australia:

  China is resisting a push for United Nations sanctions to punish the Mugabe regime over recent election violence.

  The Asian nation is a major trading partner of Zimbabwe as well as a UN Security Council member, and can veto any sanctions.

  Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says Mr Rudd should be urging China to rethink its views.

  Read also a Reuters report, “Africa, not UN council, key for Zimbabwe — China.“

  » Read more
  • July 1, 2008 1:51 PM

• China Rejects Zimbabwe Sanctions

  

  China’s foreign minister has signaled Beijing will oppose UN sanctions to punish Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe over allegations he used violence to influence the outcome of last week’s run-off elections. From Al-Jazeera:

  Speaking after talks in Beijing with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, Yang Jiechi said the most pressing concern was to “stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe”.

  “We hope the parties concerned can engage in serious dialogue to find a proper solution,” Yang said, adding that “China as a responsible country will also play a constructive role in this process.”

  Rice had been hoping to persuade China – a leading ally and trading partner of Zimbabwe – to join US efforts to step up pressure on Robert Mugabe, who was sworn in for a controversial sixth term on Sunday as Zimbabwe’s president.

  As the article notes, China is one of the primary suppliers of weapons to Mugabe’s regime. Read more about China’s role in Zimbabwe via CDT.

  » Read more
  • June 29, 2008 11:06 PM

• China Urges Parties in Zimbabwe to Solve Disputes with Dialogue

  

  From Xinhua:

  China on Tuesday called on all parties involved in Zimbabwe to solve their disputes through dialogue and realize stability and development as soon as possible.

  “China is concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe and hopes relevant sides would take into consideration the fundamental interest of the whole nation and the people, be restrained, and resolve disputes through dialogue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference.

  Liu said China hoped relevant parties would complete the presidential campaign smoothly and realize the country’s stability and development as soon as possible.

  In Zimbabwe, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare Tuesday after pulling out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe.

  In the March 29 elections, Tsvangirai won 47 percent of the votes and Mugabe 43 percent. The winner has to garner at least 51 percent.

  » Read more
  • June 27, 2008 3:38 PM

• Paul Collier: China’s Investment in Africa

  

  The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations today published an interview with Paul Collier, currently Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University. Formerly he was director of development research at the World Bank and advisor to the British government’s Commission on Africa. He is also the author of The Bottom Billion, a book about the citizens of a group of about 50 failing states whose seemingly unstoppable slide into more and more poverty has defied traditional approaches to development. Seventy percent of the bottom billion live in Africa. In his book, Collier analyzes the major reasons for failure in these countries by taking a closer look at four major traps: civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, bad neighbors, and bad governance. Here is the New York Times book review.

  In his interview with CFR, Collier responds to a question about China’s role in Africa:

  China is a growing presence on the African continent and could throw a wrench in any aid conditionality. What is your feeling on China’s investment in Africa?
  China’s arrival on the scene is, in many respects, very good news for Africa. It’s pushed up commodity prices and it’s pushed down the cost of manufactured goods. So Africa is able to buy very cheap goods and get very high prices for its exports. The Chinese are an inadvertent charity in that they’re so big in the world that they manage to turn the terms of trade powerfully against themselves. That has shifted quite a lot of the benefits of Chinese growth from China to Africa. So we start with a big plus. The minus, of course, is that we’ve got the scramble for Africa part too, with China racing everyone else to the bottom in terms of standards of governance. So it’s important to try and pull back from that and agree [on] a set of common standards. If we try and get China to adhere to our standards, we’ve lost. But if we try and build a common set of standards with China, then that well might be feasible. Because the Chinese have always taken the long-term view and it’s not in China’s interest to build a new vintage of fragile states, some of which then fall into insecurity.

  In his book, The Bottom Billion, Collier was somewhat less charitable:

  So the growth of agglomerations in Asia has made the export diversification route more difficult for the bottom billion. Another effect of this growth is that Asian countries are increasingly desperate to secure supplies of natural resources. The Chinese are all over the countries of the bottom billion, securing natural resource deals. Superficially, this is good news: it is certainly raising prices, most obviously of oil, which some countries of the bottom billion export. But [with the] trap of poor policy, [...] high prices for resource exports are likely to chill the impetus for reform. [With] the conflict trap, [...] the spread of high natural resource prices increase[s] the risk of conflict. [And with] the natural resource trap, [...] natural resources are not the royal road to growth unless governance is unusually good. In the bottom billion it is already unusually bad, and the Chinese are making it worse, for they are none to sensitive when it comes to matters of governance. When Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was looking for money to bail himself out of the ruinous consequences of his political choices, he came up with the “look east” strategy, East did not mean Russia, it meant China. And China has welcomed his overtures with open arms. The same goes for Angola. After the defeat of Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, the developed countries finally decided to put the squeeze on the government of Angola, trying to clean up grotesque misuse of the oil money. China came in with over $4 billion in loans, and the Angolan government was off the hook. So the bottom billion are locked into natural resource exports twice over: by the threshold effects of Asian export agglomerations and by Asia’s desperate need for natural resources. (p. 86-87)

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  • June 27, 2008 9:19 AM

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