The New York Times - MAY 16, 2014
NAIROBI, Kenya — For nearly a decade, as China
made a historic push for business opportunities and expanded influence
in Africa, most of the continent’s leaders were so thrilled at having a
deep-pocketed partner willing to make big investments and start huge new
projects that they rarely paused to consider whether they were getting a
sound deal.
China
has peppered the continent with newly built stadiums, airports,
hospitals, highways and dams, but as Africans are beginning to fully
recognize, these projects have also left many countries saddled with
heavy debts and other problems, from environmental conflict to labor
strife. As a consequence, China’s relationship with the continent is
entering a new and much more skeptical phase.
The
doubts aren’t coming from any soured feelings from African leaders
themselves, most of whom still welcome (and profit from) China’s
embrace. The new skepticism has even less to do with the hectoring of
Western governments, the traditional source of Africa’s foreign aid and
investment (and interference). In a 2012 speech in Senegal, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state, implicitly warned Africa about
China. The continent needs “a model of sustainable partnership that adds
value, rather than extracts it,” she said, adding that unlike other
countries, “America will stand up for democracy and universal human
rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the
resources flowing.”
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