Posted on 09/10/2011 11:07:33 AM PDT by AfricanChristian
From NetEase, QQ, & ifeng:
In Guangzhou, there are about 200,000 Africans, increasing 30-40% every year. The locals believe their language skills are very poor, but they have very nimble business minds; Locals believe they are undisciplined and unorganized, but their religion and groups are extremely cohesive; They, in Guangzhou, have built the largest African community in Asia.[click to enlarge]
(Excerpt) Read more at chinasmack.com ...
Cultural differences in doing business are a very real issue.
I have a friend who has done very well setting up a company that provides cultural liaisons to American entrepreneurs.
His staff in China helps them to avoid cultural business gaffes.
mark
According to Arnold, an Associated Press journalist previously based in Africa, China doesn’t actually have racial discrimination against Africans
Its all very typical AP Journalist propoganda - until you read the comments from the Chinese bloggers at the bottom.
Chinese may not like Africans, but they like money - a lot.
And anyone with money.
How many Chinese are in Africa, and by how much does their number increase p.a.? IIRC China is very much interested in establishing a strong foothold in Africa, not necessarily to the Africans' benefit.
There are a lot more Chinese in Africa, than Africans in China.
I am sorry to burst your bubble, but the Chinese have been immensely beneficial to Africa over the past 10 years. I have watched American news channels and I fear that most Americans are being starved of a nuanced understanding of the most important trends outside the US, Middle East and Western Europe.
Why are the Chinese in Africa?
1. To obtain resources for their industries, this is the short-term arrangement.
2. To create a market for their goods. The US is flatlining and so is Europe, but Africa is a large untapped region of 800 million people. (If you look past the sob stories, most African nations are not at war and are not starving).
3. As a base for future manufacturing operations (long-term view). China will be demographically challenged in the next 30 years, so they are proactively building special economic zones in several African nations (their factories will be based there). They have also invested $9.3 billion in hydro-electric power plants in Africa.
Are they coming as missionaries? No. But they create jobs and they help grow economies. Given a choice between Bono, Madonna, Angelina Jolie and the Chinese, I’ll take the Chinese.
You did not burst any bubble here - IMO the Chinese are playing “the long game” and those short-term benefits you see may well turn into a nightmare in a century or two (my guess - much sooner). I just have never seen that the Chinese have any altruistic streak whatsoever (being wholly unencumbered by any sense of “Christian goodness”). Best of luck!
They don't. They are worst than the Soviet (Russians) in many ways. For the Chinese, money talks more than any thing else (Surprise). Exporting their people & establishing "economic zones" in other countries thru their people is one way. The Chinese, in other countries, mostly, only have real allegiance to China, end of the day. The fact that the USA has China as the MAJOR creditor does not help, in the "balance of power".
worst = worse than the Soviets...
You haven’t fully explained your “nightmare scenario” and how it is going to play out. Let me raise a few points.
1. In Africa, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Foreign aid has done more harm than good.
2. Capitalism works,and the Chinese are practicing capitalism in Africa.
3. The Chinese don’t have Africa to themselves. They pissed off the Angolans, so they are increasingly modifying their behaviour. (The Brazilian and Indians are hot on their heels).
4. If the Soviet Army could not subdue a few million Afghans, the Chinese cannot subdue 800 million Africans.
5. Rivalry between the Chinese and Indians will make it virtually impossible for the Chinese to have a free hand to subdue Africa. The Chinese will first have to deal with the Indians before they get to Africa - and this is highly unlikely.
6. China has not traditionally been an expansionist power. The Chinese did not take over Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia (all these nations have significant Chinese minorities).
I am tired of educating Westerners about China, Africa and Africa’s relationship with China. Most of you simply sprout 50-year old cliches that have little relevance to a rapidly changing World.
We suffered 350 years of a terrible slave trade, 150 years of colonisation, 70 years of Apartheid and 400 years of racism from Europeans. We suffered 1000 years of slavery and 1000 years of racism Arabs.
And we are still here.
There is nothing the Chinese can throw at us that would be worse than the treatment given to us by either Europeans or
the Arabs. Are the Chinese racist towards us? Yes, but so were the Europeans and it took them 350 years to consider us as even human beings or much less equals. (And this is still very much a work in progress).
I know many of you have a romantic view of the great European legacies of Apartheid and Colonisation and you believe that Europeans are intrinsically good while the Chinese are intrinsically evil.
I disagree.
I traveled twice to South Africa last year and I stayed at the Johannesburg Country Club. If I had traveled to South Africa a scant 20 years ago, I would not have been allowed to stay there. I met a young black South African woman - she has a Masters degree in Economics and is a Senior Manager in a top consulting firm. Yet her eldest sister is a domestic cleaner, because the Apartheid regime restricted opportunities for people like her. I also met two South African Indian girls - they were the first generation to graduate from college, not because South African Indians lacked ability, but because P.K.Botha and his chums thought their parents were inferior and not deserving of higher education.
(My Dad has a PhD in Physics and all my siblings have graduate degrees - these opportunities barely existed under British Colonial rule, my grandfather was a simple clerk in a missionary hospital even though he had the potential to study in University).
Have we Africans messed up our future? Yes. But for the love of God, stop this smug assumption that Europeans are all sweetness and light and the Chinese are pure evil. If you must make sweeping statements, support them with facts.
I would like to answer some of your charges regarding “Europeans” which is nothing but a veiled word for “white”....
1. Your OWN people sold their own into slavery.
2. The British brought law, order, and parliamentary government to Africa. The BOERS brought apartheid......
3. It is not the Europeans fault that Africans chose to let petty Dictators take power, once you were given independence.
The Chinese could care less about what happens, while Anglo-Europeans provide aid to all of Africa, and were instrumental in bringing Christianity, and ending Apartheid.
Fine, I accept what you have to say.
Now please explain to us Zimbabwe, formerly a wealthy nation benefitting all of its citizens, more than the liberated hell of today does.
Explain to us Senegal and so many other nations in Africa that have gone to hell since the evil colonialists departed.
There is plenty of literature on the subject, by the way. Chase out the colonialists, whether white or Indian, and what have you got besides clan warfare?
I have known African PhDs here in the States who chose to practice their professions in the West. Why?
F.W. De Klerk ended Apartheid, that name sounds more Boer than Anglo-European.
Mandela and Sisulu spent several decades at Robben Island, once again those names don't sound Anglo-European.
Yes some of my people sold their own into slavery, but some of your own people bought them. Take a trip to Elmina Castle in Ghana and understand first hand that both Africans and Europeans are SOBs.
Even if we were to argue that the British introduced parliamentary democracy to Africa, they also introduced concentration camps.
There was not one single petty dictator in Africa that wasn't supported at one time by the Europeans. (Mugabe wouldn't have come to power without British leftists). Yes, I take responsibility for the mess we have made of Africa.
You might be better than we are, but that does not make you good or give you any bragging rights over the Chinese and that was my point.
I never said that life is good today in Africa or that Africans don’t have a lot to be ashamed about.
But as a person with deep African roots, you cannot tell me that life in all parts of post-colonial Africa is worse than during the colonial era.
For one, there are more opportunities. Under British rule, there would be a semblance of order, but I could only aspire to be either a clerk, a school teacher or to serve you gin and tonic on your return from your hunting Safari.
Secondly, there is more to Africa than clan warfare, there are 54 different countries in Africa and I bet you cannot name ten. Most Africans alive today have never experienced war or clan warfare.
Was colonial rule all bad? No. I am a rabid hater of “white men”? No. But Africa has had a very bloody history and many aspects of Colonial rule have been white washed. My family experienced it and in some respects it was much worse than the life we live today, in some aspects it was better.
My outburst was informed by the tendency of many to assume that they are intrinsically better than the Chinese and that an Africa that trades with China would be worst place on Earth to live in.
I can assure you that the Chinese are more ruthless than any Anglo-Saxon. They NEVER do anything without a purpose.
And what if I could name 30 or more of African countries? (I had a decent education)? Would it satisfy your cheating heart, to quote an old song? It wouldn’t do anything to me, as I, like most Americans, most Westerners, matter of fact, know little about Africa, as you and we all know little about the Baltic Republics. But the Baltic Republics have recovered from centuries of foreign domination, or in any case are recovering nicely, while Africa is in the dumps, as it was 50 years ago as soon as the hated colonialists withdrew. Why? King Leopold? The Baltics have stopped blaming King Stalin. Today, rightly or not, for most people in the West that I have spoken to representative of Africa is Zimbabwe.
Ability to name African nations means nothing. I am not hostile to you, and I admit to being uninformed, but I am also unconvinced that Africa deserves all the aid the West is pouring into it, and I am certainly convinced that the mass migration of uneducated and hostile African masses into the Western countries must be stopped. Rhodesia and South Africa were better off under apartheid than they are now when the races practice apartness voluntarily as they do in the integrated United States and so most countries across the planet. Are the Romas (Gypsies) integrated in Slovakia?
Curious...
I live in the Asia Pacific region right now.
You ever lived in China, or anywhere in South East Asia? If yes, what did you think?
I can name 10 easily without looking them up. Nigeria Sudan Egypt Zimbabwe Congo Angola Libya Liberia Kenya Tanzania. I could easily roll on to probably get your 30. Any well informed Freeper would know these and more from the stories posted here alone. There are plenty of ignorant people among the masses but not on this site. This site is haven for news junkies and thus we know far more than the average news consumer.
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