Chinese Takeover of Africa?

[ElPunto]

Entrepreneurs From China Flourish in Africa

 

By HOWARD W. FRENCH and LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: August 18, 2007

 

LILONGWE, Malawi — When Yang Jie left home at 18, he was doing what people from China’s hardscrabble Fujian Province have done for generations: emigrating in search of a better living overseas.

 

What set him apart was his destination. Instead of the traditional adopted homelands like the United States and Europe, where Fujian people have settled by the hundreds of thousands, he chose this small, landlocked country in southern Africa.

 

“Before I left China,” said Mr. Yang, now 25, “I thought Africa was all one big desert.” So he figured that ice cream would be in high demand, and with money pooled from relatives and friends, he created his own factory at the edge of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. The climate is in fact subtropical, but that has not stopped his ice cream company from becoming the country’s biggest.

 

Stories like this have become legion across Africa in the past five years or so, as hundreds of thousands of Chinese have discovered the continent, setting off to do business in a part of the world that had been terra incognita. The Xinhua News Agency recently estimated that at least 750,000 Chinese were working or living for extended periods on the continent, a reflection of deepening economic ties between China and Africa that reached $55 billion in trade in 2006, compared with less than $10 million a generation earlier.

 

Even when Mr. Yang arrived here in 2001, he said, he could go weeks without encountering another traveler from his homeland. But as surely as his investments in the country have prospered, he said, an increasingly large community of Chinese migrants has taken root, and now runs everything from small factories to health care clinics and trading companies.

 

During the previous wave of Chinese interest in Africa in the 1960s and ’70s, an era of radical socialism and proclaimed third-world solidarity, European and American companies held sway over economies in most of the continent. Here and there, though, the Chinese made their presence felt, often in drably dressed, state-run work brigades that built stadiums, railroads and highways, crushing rocks and doing other labor by hand.

 

Today, in many of the countries where the new Chinese emigrants have settled, like Chad, Chinese-owned pharmacies, massage parlors and restaurants serving a variety of regional Chinese cuisines can be found; the Western presence, once dominant, has steadily dwindled, and essentially consists nowadays of relief experts working international agencies or oil workers, living behind high walls in heavily guarded enclaves.

 

At first, this new Chinese exodus was driven largely by word of mouth, as pioneers like Mr. Yang relayed news back home of abundant opportunities in a part of the world where many economies lie undeveloped or in ruins, and where even in the richer countries many things taken for granted in the developed world await builders and investors.

 

Conditions like these often deter Western investors, but for many budding Chinese entrepreneurs, Africa’s emerging economies are inviting precisely because they seem small and accessible. Competition is often weak or nonexistent, and for African customers, the low price of many Chinese goods and services make them more affordable than their Western counterparts.

 

Chinese Expansion

 

You Xianwen sold his pipe-laying business in Chengdu, in southwest China, this year to move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, to join a startup company with a Chinese partner he had met only online. “Back where I come from we are pretty independent people,” Mr. You, 55, said. “My brothers and sisters all supported my decision to come here. In fact, they say that if things really work out for me, they would like to move to Africa, too.”

 

Mr. You said he had considered other African countries before settling on Ethiopia, including Zambia. “Luckily I didn’t decide to go there,” he said, explaining that he had been frightened by the recent anti-Chinese protests in that country.

 

His new business, ABC Bioenergy, builds devices that generate combustible gas from ordinary refuse, providing what Mr. You said would be an affordable alternative source of energy in a country where electricity supplies are erratic and prices high.

 

Mr. You’s partner here, Mei Haijun, first came to Ethiopia a decade ago to work at a Chinese-built textile factory and has since married an Ethiopian woman, with whom he has a child. “When I first came here you could go two months without seeing another Chinese person,” he said. “But it is a different era now. There’s a flight to China every day.”

 

The pickup in air traffic between China and countries like Ethiopia now has Chinese companies scrambling to add new routes, as the Chinese government and big Chinese companies increase their stake in Africa.

 

Much of that activity reflects an intense appetite for African oil and mineral resources needed to fuel China’s manufacturing sector, but big Chinese companies have quickly become formidable competitors in other sectors as well, particularly for big-ticket public works contracts. China is building major new railroad lines in Nigeria and Angola, large dams in Sudan, airports in several countries and new roads, it seems, almost everywhere.

 

One of the largest road builders, China Road and Bridge Construction, has picked up where the solidarity brigades of an earlier generation left off. The company, which is owned by the Chinese government, has 29 projects in Africa, many financed by the World Bank or other lenders, and it maintains offices in 22 African countries.

 

On a recent Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Beijing brimming with Chinese contractors, workers from Road and Bridge and other companies swapped notes on the grab bag of countries they work in, and debated about the difficulties of learning Portuguese and French in places like Mozambique and Ivory Coast.

 

Africans view the influx of Chinese with a mix of anticipation and dread. Business leaders in Chad, a central African nation with deepening oil ties to China, are bracing for what they suspect will be an army of Chinese workers and investors.

 

“We expect a large influx of at least 40,000 Chinese in the coming years,” said Renaud Dinguemnaial, director of Chad’s Chamber of Commerce. “This massive arrival could be a plus for the economy, but we are also worried. When they arrive, will they bring their own workers, stay in their own houses, send all their money home?”

 

In Zambia, where anti-Chinese sentiment has been building for several years, merchants at the central market in Lusaka, the capital, said that if Chinese people wanted to come to Africa, they should come as investors, building factories, not as petty traders who compete for already scarce customers for bottom-dollar items like flip-flops and T-shirts.

 

“The Chinese claim to come here as investors, but they are trading just like us,” said Dorothy Mainga, who sells knockoff Puma sneakers and Harley Davidson T-shirts in the Kamwala Market in Lusaka. “They are selling the same things we are selling at cheap prices. We pay duty and tax, but they use their connections to avoid paying tax.”

 

Although Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria and in Ethiopia, where nine were killed by an armed separatist movement in May, the growing Chinese presence around the continent has produced few serious incidents.

 

Misunderstandings are common, however, and resentments inevitably arise. Africans in many countries complain that Chinese workers occupy jobs that locals are either qualified for or could be easily trained to do. “We are happy to have the Chinese here,” said Dennis Phiri, 21, a Malawian university student who is studying to become an engineer. “The problem with the Chinese companies is that they reserve all the good jobs for their own people. Africans are only hired in menial roles.”

 

Another frequent criticism is that the Chinese are clannish, sticking among themselves day and night.

 

In Addis Ababa, in what is a typical arrangement for most large companies, the 200 Chinese workers for the Road and Bridge Corporation live in a communal compound, eating food prepared by cooks brought from China and receiving basic health care from a Chinese doctor.

 

“After a day off you wonder what you’re doing here, so we like to keep working,” said Cheng Qian, the country manager for the road-building company in Ethiopia. He added that his family had never visited him during several years of work here.

 

African Ambivalence

 

Sometimes, the Chinese approach has created serious frictions with African workers. At a leading hotel here in Lilongwe, breakfast guests stared as an agitated Chinese traveling salesman, sweating profusely, screamed at his staff minutes before his pitch on nutritional supplements was set to begin.

 

“You say it is not your fault, but the way you are doing things is just ******, ******,” the man sputtered before a clutch of African assistants, who looked humiliated. “You people are unbelievable.”

 

When the salesman finally left the room, members of the restaurant staff gathered near the door and vented their disgust. “We don’t need people like that to come here and colonize us again,” one said.

 

After nearly seven years in Malawi, Yang Jie, the ice cream maker, seems to have learned better. Greeting his workers at the ice cream factory, he begins the day by asking, “How did you sleep last night?”

 

One quickly replied, “Very well,” sounding a bit formal.

 

“Don’t tell me a lie,” Mr. Yang answered with a sly, friendly smile. “It’s O.K. to tell me your worries.”

 

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Source

 

Other articles in the series

[Paragon]

^^A new phenomenon in Eastleigh, Nairobi is the sight of Chinese business agents inside the shopping complex buildings writing down orders. They only require a fraction of money and soon as they reach shanghai, the Somali shop owner recieves a whole container of the goods he needs with little cost. In nairobi-wide the chinese presence is ever increasing-the same is the case with Mombasa.

[ElPunto]

^What's wrong with the Africans? It seems like the Asian experience all over again.

[Paragon]

^^I think it is the view that the chinese are the alternative to the Indians' expensive business dealings in Nairobi. Somalis are increasingly taking over all market the Indians use to dominate with the help of cheap products that appeals to Kenyans, Tanzanians, Ugandans and Sudanese who shop in Eastleigh. The Chinese thus are the providers of these cheap commodities the Africans recquire most.

 

On the developmental side, almost all new road projects in Kenya are being undertaken by the Chinese and in return the kenyan government has granted the Chinese the access to explore for oil in the Somali inhabited areas of NFD. From the look of it, the Chinese are successfully appealing to Africans who don't seem to have any suspicion towards them whatsoever. The Chinese are now in every sector of the economy in some African countries...and ever expanding.

 

PS: The Chinese appeal is due to their investment approach. They don't have any political conditions unlike Western investors. Their's is only economics-oriented, which makes African governments only too happy.

[ElPunto]

^I know but a wholesale takeover of your country by foreigners - how is that appealing? Africans should wake up and realize they can do the same or more that Chinese are doing. Why does one need Chinese peddlers when you can import clothing from China and sell them yourself? It's odd. Personally I think the Chinese will prove even more rapacious than the whites were.

[GM]

".......... in return the kenyan government has granted the Chinese the access to explore for oil in the Somali inhabited areas of NFD....."

 

Paragon, are you able to point out to the source of evidence of the goverment granting the chinese access to oil exploraton in NFD please. i read the kenyan papers but i guess its one of the things that doesnt appear there.

 

thanks

[rudy-Diiriye]

chinese will sell to africans poisonous materials and steal their natural resources. this ppl are real criminals, they should not allowed to sell things like toothpaste that kills ppl.

 

i could never trust chinese. i dont understand why their products are not banned from world markets.

[NASSIR]

Somalia is still safe from exploitation of its resources. Saudi Arabia which has the largest reserves can only supply the energy use and needs of the world for only 10 years before its deposits reach the depletion time. Other alternatives which have been tried are difficult to undertake. For example, in Alberta Canada, heavy oil like tar sand deposits amount to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil, but only 300 billion barrels of oil are recoverable. It costs huge amount of money to recover, thus the net energy is negative. Although Somalia has no proven resereves, it is possible that it would be the next major supplier of oil in the world. Before that happens, we have to get our acts together.

[ElPunto]

The Colony

 

The tsunami of Chinese commerce is sparking tension and even violence in some parts of Africa.

 

The past decade has seen Chinese economic growth explode across the world and the Chinese economic miracle seems to reach into every imaginable area of manufacturing and natural resources.

 

Filmmakers Brent Huffman and Xiaoli Zhou traveled to Senegal in West Africa to explore the onslaught of Chinese economic might and its impact on long-standing African traditions.

 

In the following account, Huffman describes the making of their film The Colony and the issues behind it.

 

In pursuit of personal profit and less competition, large numbers of Chinese are migrating to Africa - which they perceive to be a land of untapped opportunity and potential. In Dakar, Senegal's capital, small Chinese businesses are flourishing in a rapidly expanding Chinatown.

 

With The Colony, I aspired to tell a completely personal story from both key perspectives, the Chinese and the Senegalese, and to look at two seemingly opposite cultures thrown together by economic opportunity. I also wanted to see how Chinese immigrants were making Africa "home" and how this process was changing the unique landscape of the continent.

 

But neither side wanted to speak to me on camera at first. I was an outsider to both cultures being a white American with limited Mandarin language skills and no French or Wolof ability.

 

After several frustrating days of searching Dakar, we found Khadim Mbengue, a young, well-connected small business owner. He turned out to be very vocal and angry about the Chinese encroaching on his retail business with their cheap low-quality goods.

 

He is also a local head of UNACOIS-JAPPO, one of the biggest Senegalese retail business associations. Khadim not only became a charismatic main character, but also led us to other voices representing the Senegalese perspective.

 

Access to the Chinese community was seemingly impossible on that initial trip. The overseas Chinese in general are very distrustful of all foreign media. No international news stories I had seen before were able to do any extensive interview on camera with a Chinese worker or business owner in Africa. In these stories Chinese were usually seen in wide shots from far away.

 

Due to the distrust of the Chinese, I was forced to come back a second time with a Chinese fixer. By then Xiaoli, after dozens of international phone calls, had secured endorsement from the Chinese embassy in Dakar.

 

Once this official door was open, I was able to gradually reach farther into the community. I felt very lucky to be able to film intimate scenes with some of the Chinese living in Senegal. Through capturing their way of life and mingling with them off camera, I saw a vibrant group of people who are determined and flexible enough to compete anywhere in the world.

 

Conquering a new world

 

 

Small Chinese businesses have been expanding and growing rapidly across the African continent.

 

Upon arriving in Dakar and more recently Liberia, I was shocked at how visible the Chinese presence in these African countries is. Many African nations are mired in hopeless economic prospects, yet in these places the economy was booming for the Chinese.

 

With the Chinese, unthinkable growth was possible even in countries long abandoned by the West.

 

Cranes, enormous dump trucks, and construction equipment of all kinds baring Chinese logos and imported from China could be seen feverishly building late into the night.

 

And workers brought over from China can be seen overseeing all aspects of construction.

 

There are Chinese restaurants serving genuine Chinese cuisine everywhere. During my second trip to the country I lived on authentic steamed fish and dumplings. Chinese goods like cars, motorcycles, pots and pans, shoes, pesticide, clothing, plastic toys, etc., are very popular among local consumers.

 

Everywhere I looked I saw evidence of Chinese activity in Dakar from large-scale fishing companies and stadiums to toothbrushes and cheap jewellery sold on the street.

 

Once I was able to gain access to this community, much of what drives them was revealed to me. The Chinese let me in to their homes and their lives. I was able to disappear into their world.

 

What surprised me most was the Wild West kind of vibe shown in the attitudes of the Chinese in Senegal. This was the new frontier for them and they were the new cowboys conquering this new world. These young pioneering men and woman threw caution to the wind in their bold adventure.

 

This young vibrant Chinese community was reminiscent of the fiction films of Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang Ke like Unknown Pleasures and Platform. These were not the conservative shy people of my wife's generation in China.

 

These were outspoken, rebellious, and ambitious youths proudly displaying their brightly dyed hair and trendy low cut clothing. These young twenty-somethings drink, smoke, and sing loud karaoke as they complain about the day's events.

 

Suspicion and hostility

 

Although there is communication between the two sides at a certain level, it is rather limited. Despite various differences in language, culture, and work ethics, the Chinese are not making enough of an effort to integrate into Senegalese society.

 

Although the Chinese businesses have brought some benefits to the local low-income consumers, their overall presence is viewed with suspicion and hostility by many Senegalese.

 

In Dakar, there seems to be relative peace between the two groups and a kind of reciprocal economic relationship, though most of the money made is on the Chinese side.

 

I fear that if the hostile backlash in the business community keeps growing, a violent inciting incident, like the murder seen in our film but on a larger scale, might occur.

 

Such an event would further polarise the two communities and could potentially end friendly collaboration. I foresee the Chinese will have to eventually ramp up private security, a practice already in place in some African nations, in order to protect their investments.

 

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