China’s new president, Xi Jinping, has tried to calm Africa Monday that Beijing would counsel China Inc against suffocating African efforts to nurture industry and jobs.
On his first overseas trip since taking over, Xi ‘s speech in Dar es Salaam, acclaimed regularly by his glamorous wife, shows he’s seen the straws in the wind. Africa just got over colonisation by the west. The last thing it wants is re-colonization, which is precisely what Beijing has been attempting so far.
The new message of Sino-African “equality” and that Chinese development assistance to Africa shall be without political strings is easier said.
“China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones,” the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, lamido Sanusi, has complained in The Financial Times this month. “This was also the essence of colonialism.”
“I cannot recommend a divorce. However, a review of the exploitative elements in this marital contract is long overdue,” Sanusi complained, the most trenchant yet by any African leader.
Not surprisingly, the piece has been widely quoted for its candour and brusqueness.
Even before Xi waved the white flag, the Chinese vice minister for foreign affairs went to the extent of chiding China. Inc.. In a clear sign of despair that investing businessmen have been behaving badly, minister Zhai Jun told the Forum of Chinese Businesses in Africa to stop draining the pond and chasing one- off deals.
“Build a better corporate image. Every Chinese company and individual is a spokesperson for China. Chinese businesses in Africa are generally doing well promoting the development of local communities; but they are certainly not without shortcomings. I hope Chinese businesses will further strengthen self-discipline, improve internal management and win the market with integrity and quality, rather than only seeking one-off deals,” he said.
“I want to see a Chinese business community that complies with local laws, respects local customs and traditions, understands the importance of improved labor practices and environmental protection, enables more local participation in operation, and readily gives back to the local communities. The practice of abandoning the country immediately after taking some quick returns is nothing but short-sightedness. It is even more unethical to ‘drain the pond in order to catch all the fish.’”
Zhai’s, and now Xi’s, statements confirm that Nigerian central banker has touched a raw nerve. They are as direct an admission of corporate mis-governance one would hear from top Chinese leaders. Some in Beijing have clearly sensed that African politicians and bureaucrats are accountable too. Also, the west is smarting in its relative eclipse; so sweet-heart deals with China Inc are - and will be - exposed via the feisty local media!
But old habits aren’t easy to give up. China Inc is used to hiss and bully, and to be unmindful of local sentiments. Their SOP has been to piggyback on China’s politico-corporate cabal. Reinforcing their perverse world view, China’s large contingents of stationed diplomats see wads of easy cash from Beijing’s state-owned banks as the invincible formula to buy off African leaderships.
All this must propel India’s project exports. While China’s ‘two-way trade’ with Africa has ballooned from about $10 billion in 2000 to almost $200 billion in 2012, Africa already being Beijing’s second largest project contracting market, and as statistics from Beijing claim, China’s fourth largest investment destination, now is the time for us to start emulating the dragon’s accumulative investment in Africa of $15.3 billion. Remember, China’s investment was nil just over a decade ago and the sagacious Brajesh Mishra had us put in USD 750 million in Sudan alone.
(The columnist is CEO & Co-founder, India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting. Tweets @therohitbansal)