Be careful of China, Africa warned
The clarion call for Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa should be to seek to develop and sustain a win-win economic relationship with China, by having a regional master plan, argues OBERT GUTU.

HARARE - ‘This world is getting smaller and if Zimbabwe is not careful, she will be squeezed out’
Modern-day China is a capitalist nation. The majority of its corporations may be state-owned, but they are fiercely capitalistic in both their mode of production and marketing. They are first and foremost, profit-driven.
There are absolutely no meaningful benefits to be derived by Africa if small and weak African nations continue to enter into fragmented and uncoordinated bilateral economic contracts with China.

The fourth Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Egypt last month set the tone for China's desire to structure and outline its foreign and economic policy, in Africa. Because of the abundance of natural resources such as minerals and oil on the African continent, China is taking its economic relations with Africa very seriously.

Africa has not been spared the effects of the global economic crisis. Although Zimbabwe's economy, for the past decade or so, has been largely de-linked from the global economy, it would be folly for anyone to think that Zimbabwe has nothing to lose from the global economic recession. Weak and decimated as the Zimbabwean economy might be today, it is not a secret that Zimbabwe is a sleeping economic giant. As soon as we emerge from the politics of autocracy, repression and kleptocracy, Zimbabwe will be a resurgent economic giant in Sub-Saharan Africa, second, perhaps, only to South Africa.
Zimbabwe is well-endowed with virtually every strategic mineral resource known to mankind - most of which is yet to be exploited. China is acutely aware of Zimbabwe's strategic position as a sleeping economic giant with vast mineral and other natural resources. China has become the third largest commercial partner in Africa after the USA and France. There are about 450 Chinese-owned investment projects in Africa; most of it resource extraction. Since the first FOCAC summit in 2002, trade between China and Africa has increased from US$10,5 billion to US$106 billion.

Zimbabwe has to learn to re-direct her development trajectory to make her economic revival more enduring and sustainable. Gone should be the days of sloganeering and hate-mongering. This world is getting smaller and smaller and if Zimbabwe is not careful, she will very soon be squeezed out.

China means business in Africa; the Chinese are not here to sloganeer and reminisce about the good old days of the liberation struggles that were waged on the African continent in the sixties and the seventies. China is in Africa to benefit from the vast natural resources that are necessary to fuel the Chinese economic boom.
A Chinese Development Assistance in Southern Africa Regional stakeholder workshop was held in Maputo last week, put together by AFRODAD (African Forum and Network on Debt and Development) in conjunction with SAPSN (Southern African People's Solidarity Network).

Celebrated citizen of SADC and renowned academic, Dot Keet, presented an insightful paper entitled ''Perspectives for African Engagement with China''. This thought-provoking paper interrogated the myth behind Sino-African relationships. Keet was not flattering in her condemnation of the one-size-fits-all approach that is normally adopted by Western institutions such as the World Bank in their dealings with developing countries - particularly in Africa.

She was also not flattering when she boldly stated that African countries should be very careful when entering into economic and financial agreements with China. For obvious reasons, China would like to portray herself as Africa's ''all-weather friend''. Naturally, African dictators are very keen to enter into economic relations with China mainly because China is hardly bothered about issues of governance, environmental sustainability and human rights. These African dictators will tell you that aid from China is always without any strings attached. They are, of course, not telling the truth. In this world that we live in as mere mortals, nothing is for free and no aid is without any strings attached.

If Africa fails to develop her own strategic economic agenda with the Chinese, the African continent will remain just as a huge market for cheap imports from China whilst our vast natural resources will continue to be plundered by the new capitalists from the East. Is China really Africa's ''all-weather friend''? Certainly not! Is Zimbabwe's much talked about ''Look East'' policy the panacea to our socio-economic trepidation? Certainly not!

By Obert Gutu