Last week the great and the good of the the Republic of Gambia mingled with the diplomatic representatives from the Republic of China (Taiwan). The occasion was to mark Taiwan’s 96th Independence anniversary and was celebrated in sumptuous style at the Paradise Suite Hotels in Senegambia.
One could easily imagine similar events in diplomatic circles across Africa, but you would be mistaken. In the battle for diplomatic supremacy between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Africa, there is one clear winner and it is not Taiwan.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country’s largest oil producer, is to invest in a joint venture refinery in Chad.
The CNPC Service and Engineering Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNPC, has signed an agreement with the Chadian government to jointly invest in a refinery company to the north of N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, according to an announcement on the website of CNPC.
The China-Africa connection deepens…
The prevailing narrative? Once upon a time, Africa suffered abuse, exploitation and mismanagement by Western colonialist powers. Enter: China, a developing country with a similar history of imperialist aggression (and subsequent liberation) that promises new hope for a “south-south cooperation” in which Africa can bypass “northern” hegemonic superpowers and forge its way to better infrastructure, good governance and greater riches, all in the name of “mutual benefit” with the PRC. But is this new partnership really sustainable? Or will it crumble as a result of greed, self-interest and bad policy?
The entire world may not have sat up and taken notice in the last week, and that is probably just fine with China, which has just made a major move into central Africa.
With its agreement to lend $5 billion to Congo, what might have often looked like a grab-bag approach to the African continent by a country with only sporadic involvement there has finally taken on a distinct outline.
Mining companies, the International Monetary Fund and other donors were scrambling on Wednesday for clarification of a planned deal between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deal would tie up mineral resources in exchange for $5bn (€3.6bn, £2.5bn) in infrastructure projects and loans. A preliminary agreement was signed this week just as an IMF mission landed in Kinshasa to review progress towards the resumption of budget support for Congo.
Sudan’s conservative capital has become the hot place to party (behind closed doors, of course), thanks to a sudden inflow of oil wealth. And who’s buying the oil?
The economic boom fueled by the mostly Chinese-drilled oil is attracting Sudanese from overseas back to Khartoum again. All of this would have been hardly unimaginable about fifteen years ago when political oppression and the North-South civil war were at their peaks. But now, the Sudanese diaspora, slowly returning to their homeland is bringing along with it tons of money and a lifestyle foreign to Sudanese culture, hence the increasingly common wild parties.
“Relations between the Chinese and Sudanese governments are no more special than our relations with other developing nations,” Ambassador Liu Guijin told a press conference after a visit to the United States and United Nations.
“But the media and some non-government organisations criticise Sino-Sudanese relations and politicise the issue — this is incorrect,” China’s representative on the Darfur issue said.
“We just have more economic cooperation,” he added.