Some quick thoughts on China

So apparently I've been writing once a month, noticed it was the last day of August, and thought I should put SOMETHING up. I happen to be writing my background guides for NCSC (our college-level model UN conference) on China, and since I spent last summer in Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/etc., this is almost related enough to count as some reflection from that.

I'm writing about Chinese development in Africa, something that is increasingly catching the attention of the west and international development agencies that tend to be western in nature. If we're going to go for a pop culture explanation or reference, the one that I'd suggest is to look at China's involvement in Sudan as an example of how their foreign investment in Africa tends to develop--not politically motivated, no strings attached, and motivated by natural resource acquisition (mostly oil or minerals).

So while many people will jump to criticize the lack of political or governance conditions on China's development assistance to these countries, I for one am starting to be swayed to the "it's a good idea" camp. I'm just as opposed to genocide as anyone else, and China's agreements with Sudan are certainly questionable if not outright immoral. But looking outside of this conflict zone, Chinese investment has the potential to at least provide enough indirect benefits to African countries to be worth considering.

Take the agreement recently made between China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May--the DRC has given a 68% share of its major state mining company, Gécamines, to a Chinese firm and formed a joint venture that will give China enough copper to last it about 25 years. One might argue that China is simply pillaging the country for its mineral deposits, and to a certain extent I would say that is true. But in exchange, China is making $9 billion in improvements to infrastructure in the country. This includes $3 billion in mine improvements to make the mines useable, thousands of miles of roads to ensure that China can transport what it mines out of the country, and some public goods like hospitals and universities.

You can look at this cynically, and say that China is motivated by its need for minerals and these infrastructure projects benefit these needs, or you can see it as the most significant development in the country for years. The DRC doesn't qualify for many IMF programs because of concerns with governance, transparency, and corruption. But the way I see it, China will make sure that those roads are built and those mines are useable for their own benefit, and hopefully the rest of the improvements will follow.

And now after that bit of semi-coherent rambling, off I go for another month.