A Chinese scramble.

Has the West lost the new scramble for Africa? That is one way of reading China's continuing waves of investment in the continent. China, the critics say, props up despotic regimes while bleeding Africa dry of the resources that it needs to feed the Moloch of its expanding economy. Even some African Union (AU) officials warn of Chinese "neocolonialism". On the other hand 60 years of Western development aid with strings attached has done little more than make the former colonial powers feel better about themselves. It has brought neither prosperity nor stability to Africa. Investment, by contrast, could do both.

News that a Chinese investment fund is negotiating a $7 billion oil, mineral rights and infrastructure deal with the military regime in Guinea again shows that China values economic advantage and political influence over human rights. Last month the troops of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who seized power in Conakry last year in a coup, took part in the massacre of 150 unarmed opposition protesters. Western nations and the AU have called for sanctions or even "intervention" unless Captain Camara stands down and allows free elections in January.

China, which insists that it does not "interfere in the internal affairs" of the countries in which it invests, props up the regime in Sudan of President Omar Al Bashir, who is accused by the International Criminal Court of war crimes in Darfur. This kind of "no strings" aid is short-sighted as well as immoral: the coup leader or petty despot whom you bargain with today may be history tomorrow. Worse still for the investor he is likely to show the same regard for commercial contracts as he does for citizens' rights.

But there is little point in diplomacy that simply runs into the wall of Chinese power. Sixty years after the Communist revolution, China has become a major world player, and is beginning to realise that this brings with it global responsibilities, from climate change and international piracy to the threat posed by Iran's secret nuclear programme. This should be extended to include Africa. China has joined Britain, France, Russia, the US and the EU in calling on government and rebels in Sudan to honour the 2005 peace agreement and hold "free and fair national elections" in April next year - the first polls since 1986.

As President Kagame of Rwanda said in Berlin: "I wish the Western world would invest in Africa rather than give development aid. There is a need for aid, but it should be used to allow trade and build up companies". This the Chinese have understood. Africa is rich in resources that China needs to fuel its economy; Africa needs roads, airlines, computers, schools, energy, telecommunications.

What Beijing has not yet understood is that economic stability, if it is to endure, needs to be underpinned by political stability based on human rights. The West should continue to compete with China for investment opportunities in Africa while at the same time persuading Beijing to help bring good government to a continent that for too long has suffered from corruption, civil wars, poverty and disease. China, for its own sake and Africa's, must accompany its appetite for natural resources with a demand for the rule of law.

Copyright 2009 Gulf Daily News

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