From Overseas Press

China's new cooperation with Africa (chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2010-08-27 11:02

China is doing "business and striking deals all over Africa," and its cooperation with the continent has benefited Africa's development, said an editorial in the Financial Times on Aug 25.

The article listed the fruits of the cooperation, including "deals to import coal from Mozambique and oil from Nigeria. Its traders pop up all over Africa, and its construction companies have built roads, railways and buildings from Lesotho to Egypt."

While China is striving in Africa, some Western commentators, and some Africans, too, have decried "China's burgeoning relationship with the continent as a new form of colonialism." However, the article said, such criticism is "largely misplaced."

Strategies applied by "Western-led development," however well-meaning, "did not break the cycle of under-development in Africa," said the article. By contrast, China's investment is "made for business reasons and boosting employment and growth, offer new hope and an alternative way forward." The country is building infrastructure to benefit "industries outside of natural resources." Chinese traders have "brought cheap consumer goods to the continent." Meanwhile, "Chinese manufacturers may look at Africa with new interest as a base for production as labor costs rise at home."

Therefore, "former colonial powers are in a weak position to lecture China on Africa." The West cannot really "grumble about being outbid by the Chinese in the race for natural resources in Africa, having preached the virtues of competition."