N'Djamena, capital of Chad, is an unlikely place to find a Chinese restaurant. The dusty, poverty-stricken city, deep in the heart of the arid Sahel region of Africa, feels a world away from Asia, yet it's possible to buy egg rolls here. There's a Chinese-run hotel in the city, too.

N'Djamena, however, is hardly exceptional. Across Africa, Chinese business investments, aid, and military assistance are changing the continent. One African diplomat described it to Maclean's as an "invasion," but it is one that has been extremely lucrative for Africa. Chinese trade with the continent totalled more than US$50 billion in 2006. Aid to Africa, which stood at a little more than US$100 million in 1998, grew to almost US$3 billion by 2004. Chinese construction firms build everything from roads to sports stadiums, and some 750,000 Chinese migrants have moved to Africa in the last 10 years. Many come to work on large construction or oil extraction projects. Others are farm workers or small businessmen who open shops and restaurants in local neighbourhoods.

China's primary motivation for its expansion into Africa is securing oil and other resources to feed its mushrooming economy. In 2003, China surpassed Japan as the second-largest oil consumer, behind only the United States. Its share of the total growth in global demand for oil over the last four years is at least 40 per cent. Approximately one-third of China's petroleum imports come from Africa. Angola is its top supplier, surpassing Saudi Arabia in 2006, and the Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea are among China's 10 largest oil sources.

But Africa is also fertile ground for China to recruit supporters in international diplomacy. First and foremost, China seeks allies who will reject diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway territory. "The one-China principle is the political foundation for the establishment of China's relations with African countries and regional organizations," reads a 2006 Chinese government policy paper. According to Joshua Eisenman, a fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council think tank and the co-author of a forthcoming book on China-Africa relations, this is the "master belief" that guides China's involvement on the continent.

As a veto-holding member of the United Nations Security Council, China can bring much pressure to bear against African nations that choose to recognize Taiwan. In 2003, Liberia, which needed Chinese support for a UN peacekeeping mission in the country, reopened diplomatic relations with Beijing and expelled Taiwan. There have also been persistent rumours and unconfirmed allegations that China covertly supported rebels in Chad as a way to pressure the Chadian government to reject Taiwan and resume diplomatic relations with Beijing — something Chad did in 2006.

China also expects its African friends to protect its interests in international bodies such as the United Nations. "The United Nations Human Rights Council is a place where China needs protection, because China has its own human rights problems," says Joshua Kurlantzick, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the author of Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World. "China is beginning to realize that if you're going to be a major player on the world stage, you need allies in any major forum. Africa is a lot of nations. You can rack up a lot of friends and allies."

In return, China's government and businesses are willing to provide African leaders with pretty much whatever they want — be it cash, construction, or, in the case of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, fighter jets and, reportedly, roof tiles for his 25-bedroom mansion. Beijing will also reciprocate diplomatic support for even its most compromised African partners. "For the longest time, China was the most effective shield the Bashir regime had in Sudan," says J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University, referring to Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president and dictator.

Unlike Western governments and financial institutions, the Chinese have a reputation for not being overly concerned about how the money they invest or spend in Africa is used, and they make few demands of their aid recipients, beyond supporting China and shunning Taiwan. Beijing, in its 2006 policy paper, described its philosophy as one of "non-interference in each other's internal affairs." It's an attitude that's welcome in much of Africa, where leaders are tired of being dictated to by Western governments and institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "The Chinese work everywhere. They don't make speeches," Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said recently.

Print Article    Send to a Friend    Write a letter to the editor

Digg this Stumble It!   Post to del.icio.us Seed Newsvine   Share on Facebook Technorati links