The PRC Meets the DRC

The IHT seems to be almost entirely dedicated to happenings in China today (22 September 2007). From the appointment of a new Catholic bishop in Beijing, to Mattel apologising for recalling more toys than it needed to and thus damaging China’s reputation, it appears to have been a busy couple of days in China. The article that particularly caught my eye, though, was by Howard French, one of my favourite reporters out there. He is currently the Bureau Chief for the New York Times’s Shanghai bureau, though he has a long history elsewhere in Asia (before Shanghai he was in Tokyo) and around the world (he’s covered the Caribbean, but he got his start in Africa). If there is a reporter out there that knows his stuff about the world, it’s certainly him.

His article, The Chinese and Congo take a giant leap of faith, which interestingly follows nicely from my last post, is both provocative and excellently written. The article looks at a recent agreement struck between the governments of China and the Congo offering US$5 billion (an amount that seems to be worth less and less these days…) worth of loans to be granted for infrastructure development in the Congo.

In theory, the deal is win-win for both countries. The Congo gets important infrastructure, such as over 3,000 km each of new roads and rail tracks. China, in turn, gets access to Congo’s vast mineral wealth. Of course, contracts for building the infrastructure will also probably go to efficient Chinese companies who import their own Chinese labour. In other words, China is lending money to the Congolese government so that they can in turn hire Chinese (state-subsisdised?) companies to go in and use Chinese labour to build roads. This not only allows the Chinese government to get kickbacks from companies bidding on projects, collect taxes on their profits, and charge interest on these loans to the Congolese government, but also to find employment for some of the millions strong eligible workforce. I can’t help but think the Chinese got the better end of this deal.

Part of me really hates to pull it into this discourse, but several have already started to question whether the Chinese development model is just a new colonialism. I’m sceptical of yet, but as I’ve already mentioned, China is certainly changing the face of the development sector. I just attended the Development Studies Association’s Annual conference down in Brighton on Wednesday and even stumbled upon a fascinating book published by Zed Books: China in Africa by Chris Alden. I’ve only had a chance to skim the book, but it’s certainly very topical and relevant given developments like these!

NB- More posts to come shortly about my recent trip to Norway among others. My Internet has been down since the end of August, and so it’s been difficult finding time on the net to be able to post. Having said that, NEVER EVER get Orange broadband! Their customer service is reprehensible and their technical support is laughable!!