1 out of every 5th person in this world is Chinese.
So the shock isn’t that Angola now has a “Chinatown”, but why every other country doesn’t.
West is afraid of Dark Continent for most part it seems. Bad news for US coming out of Africa is considered much worse than for example bad news coming out of Iraq or Afghanistan. Death of 20 US soldiers was enough for Clinton to withdraw from Somalia, but no one is willing to withdraw from Iraq or Afghanistan.
Chinese would BENEFIT Africa in my view, just as they are good for INDONESIA and MALAYSIA among other ASEAN Nations.
All the leading businessmen and entrepreuners in those Countries are of Chinese Heritage. I don’t think Indonesians and Malaysians are worse off for it. They are one of the leading growth economies and that’s a good thing.
Africa has the HIGHEST population growth rate amongst all Continents. It would be hard for *any* race to out grow Africans. Especially not the “elites”, who tend to not want have babies anyway because it is so much more fun to do so many other things.
My freind from South Korea told me that within 2 decades, South Korea like Japan would have NEGATIVE population growth rate, and since none of those Countries encourage or accept immigrants, they would suffer the consequences.
Success in Capitalism seems to reduce people’s desire to have babies is my point.
We make up for it with having higher birth-rate than Europeans and obviously through immigration and that keeps us strong.
If Chinese do not take elitist and racist and dominant attitude towards Africans, then they could possibly co-exist and prosper in Africa. We may have a new people knows as Chafricans. Who knows?
However if they try to form a separate society, and treat Africans as inferiors, then they would be well advised to view on what is going on in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
JMO.
Interesting series about China/Africa connection.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/special-report-china-in-africa.html
And I do believe the Chinese are establishing a seperate society. They do not meddle in local affairs. Their main goal is to benefit China.
China isn’t in Africa for any altruistic reasons. She’s there for the raw materials and energy and that’s the sole extent of her interest. Her dealings will enrich a few of the local strongmen but will leave the average African as bad off, if not worse off than he would have been without China’s presence. Witness Sudan and Darfur.
Let's say the Chinese brought lots of their people into Zimbabwe to get the country rolling again. Lots of young men of military age. And lets say that after a while the ZANU-PF thugs decide to hassle the Chinese.
Would the world care at this stage if the Chinese decided to arm their immigrants, and the Chinese proceeded to exterminate the Zimbabweans?
The problem, as this article describes it, is that Chinese immigration to Africa is sponsored by the Communist Chinese government, as contrasted with the diaspora of Chinese immigrants in other parts of the globe.
There is an agenda behind this; a form of neo-colonialism wthout any of the western virtues (and there were many) that accompanied the 19th Century colonization of Africa. That colonization included missionary efforts which provided schools, hospitals, and impartation of the western worldview.
Many will say that that effort failed, but the aspiration for human rights are being played out in Zimbabwe today.
What do the Chinese offer ?