lauantai 8. marraskuuta 2008

China, Africa and Oil

From CFR:

The U.S.-China competition in Africa extends beyond securing access to oil. China blocked U.S.-backed efforts at the UN to heavily sanction the Sudanese government for its alleged role supporting attacks on civilians in Darfur, in which an estimated two hundred thousand people have been killed. And China’s massive no-strings-attached loans undermine U.S. attempts to improve transparency and good governance in Africa, writes Ian Taylor in Foreign Policy in Focus. “It’s on human rights and governance, not oil or strict security matters, that the interests of the United States and China will likely collide,” argues Paul McLeary in Foreign Policy. But the official charged with leading the World Bank’s infrastructure lending, Katherine Sierra, tells CFR.org that the bank sees China as “potentially a good partner in developing countries.” She says, the bank has invited China to take part in a consortium that seeks to make infrastructure investment in Africa effective.

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Another one:

Some experts suggest that the need to secure natural resources—whether oil, metal, or timber—is the driving component of Chinese foreign policy toward Africa. China's manufacturing sector has created enormous demand for aluminum, copper, nickel, iron ore, and oil. As this trend was under way in 2005, David Zweig and Bi Jianhai wrote in Foreign Affairs that China "has been able to adapt its foreign policy to its domestic development strategy" to an unprecedented level by encouraging state-controlled companies to seek out exploration and supply contracts with countries that produce oil, gas, and other resources. At the same time, Beijing aggressively courts the governments of those countries with diplomacy, trade deals, debt forgiveness, and aid packages.

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Now, as Webster Tarpley rightfully points out in his analysis on the infamous Alex Jones Show, the need for the change in the US foreign policy contrdicts the neo-con agenda concerning China and especially Russia. The current state of affairs seems to be the need to kick the Chinese out of Africa. Whether this be done by military actions or through the pseudo-humanitarian efforts of the UN peacekeeping operations, it is not clear. Although I'd like to point out that there's something of that nature going on today in Congo. Also Joe Biden has been blaming Sudan and calling for international operations on the Darfur situation it is reasonable to point out the analysis of the Chinese involvment particularly in Sudan. The CFR document linked above states the following:
"Analysts say China's most successful African energy investment has been in Sudan, which now sends 60 percent of its oil output to China."

So I don't see any reason to be optimistic on this subject. Looks like the imperialism has not reduced but rather shapeshifted and "had a facelift" under "left cover", as I have pointed out before. The endgame is a direct confrontation with Russia, as it was with the Carter adminstration in which Brzezinski played a key role. But we'll have to wait and see.. I'd rather be wrong on this one.

1 kommentti:

Lars Osterman kirjoitti...

No previous comments at all?

Anyway all I am prepared to say is these are most defnitely quite important issues.

;-)