Africabeat

Laphto (Addis Ababa)

Shawel Hailu stands in front of Laphto, a new multi-purpose entertainment center which will feature luxury apartments, an art gallery, bowling alley, pool hall, arcade, night club, cafe, fusion restaurant, shopping, swimming pool, health club, running track, movie theatre (for indy/art house films), VIP center, rentable shopping/office space, Wifi hotspots, a Montessori school and, eventually, a world-class pediatrics hospital. He's part of the wave of returned Diaspora Ethiopians driving the current building boom.

His materials?  Sourced from China, of course, via Guangzhou.  The foreman on his work site are also Chinese.

Gottera Junction (Addis Ababa)

Artistic rendering of the new Gottera Junction, a project by a Shanghai-based construction group.  Pretty, isn't it? 

Without roads, there is no development

The (now former) Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Lin Lin, sits with Mr. Wen, the head of CRBC in Ethiopia at opening of a new road linking a Chinese glass factory to a main thoroughfare.  CRBC, a state-owned Chinese roads and bridge construction company, has broke ground on dozens of new roads in Addis Ababa since it launched its first Ethiopian project in 1998 known simply as "the ring road," a name and a concept which ought to make residents of Beijing smile.  The mayor of Addis Ababa and the head of the Addis Ababa Roads Authority also officiated.  The mayor thanked the Chinese and compared Ethiopia to the US and China saying, "if there are no roads, there is no development."  The Chinese officials praised the EPRDF for their wisdom and for bringing development to the Ethiopian people.  (No comment.)

The difference between Senegal and China

Also originally appearing on Global Voices:

Blog politique au Senegal explains the difference between Senegal and China [Fr]: “Aside from the obvious differences like the color of their skin, the enormous disparity in the size of their populations, their respective demographic differences, I also know that there exists another fundamental difference…Us, we play football, we dream of footballs, we talk about football, we worship the professional football players, we beg in order to pay for this time-wasting game that brings the country to a halt whenever there is a match. All the while the Chinese also dream of footballs: those that they will manufacture and sell to us in cash!”

(I love Blog Politique au Senegal by the way.  One of the most incisive and prolific political blogs in all of French-speaking Africa.)

WSJ on South-South Investment

The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel on South-South investment:

(via Africa Unchained)

Chinese Bank Buys into South Africa's Standard Bank

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Acquires Stake in South Africa's Standard Bank

• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the most valuable bank in the world, bought 20% of South Africa's Standard Bank for 36.7 billion rand ($5.5 billion)
• largest foreign investment by a Chinese bank--ever
• largest foreign-direct investment of any country in South Africa--ever
• Plan to create a common $500m fund to invest in oil and mining

Almost everything that happens in China these days is the largest thing ever.  Reason for caution; moment of opportunity.

Read all about it in the Economist

Beijing: Chinese police beat up Africans

I had a piece run in the Guardian, so I removed my initial summary of various eyewitness accounts due to possible copyright issues.  You can read that article below.

I also came across a new eyewitness account at a Newsweek blog that is definitely worth checking out.

*   *   *

At least 20 black men, including students, tourists and the son of a Caribbean diplomat, were arrested in a popular nightclub district of Beijing on Friday, several of the group being severely beaten on suspicion of dealing drugs, witnesses said.

Continue reading

Chinos en África: por una oportunidad

Matías Zibell from BBC Mundo contacted me about doing another interview about Chinese in Africa, this time in Spanish!  Apparently I wrote on my website that I speak Spanish, which is technically true in the way it's technically true that I am Egyptian.

Moral of the story: be careful what you write on your resume!

Fortunately, BBC decided not to do an on-air interview, but rather a news article where Zibell lovingly translated the answers to his questions, which I gave in English, into Spanish.

It's called "Chinos en África: por una oportunidad."

Zibell was really fascinated by what I was saying about ordinary Chinese in Africa, the working class who come to Africa seeking their fortunes which I think is an aspect of the "China in Africa" story that is underreported.

My Spanish is good enough for passive translation, so I will translate the article when I get a chance.

Back to China, From Africa

But right now, I'm in Doha and they've just announced my flight to Beijing is boarding.  Almost home! 

I spent 3 and a half months in Africa, and as expected, it changed my life.  So much to say.  Fortunately, I'll now have an internet connection and the time to write!

I'd also like to say thank you so much to all the new readers that came to Africabeat the last few months.  I've learned so much from your comments and really look forward to continuing the discussion.

Zimbabwe: China Withdraws Support for Mugabe Regime

I've just read a headline I've been anticipating for some time.

China, Zimbabwe's biggest trading partner and source of aid (in no small part because the rest of the world has embargoed it!) announced it will cut off all non-humanitarian support for Robert Mugabe's regime according to Lord Malloch Brown, Britain's foreign minister.

This is BIG NEWS, at least from where I'm standing. 

China's also gotten tougher on Sudan of late. Perhaps the powers that be in Beijing believe they might gain more by playing better with the international community. 

At the very least, they can smell change in the air.  Zimbabwe's no longer bankable, no longer a country in which to make long-term investments in industries or in people. Politically, I get the sense that things could turn in any number of directions at any moment. 

This isn't the Cold War anymore.  China was cozy with Zimbabwe and sold them all the neat internet filtering and radio jamming technologies its own government so enthusiastically employs.  But it was never about ideology.  It was about strategic interest.  And for whatever reason, China's decided it's no longer in its interest to throw its weight behind Robert Mugabe.

(From the Daily Telegraph) Lord Malloch Brown said he had been informed of the change by Liu Guijin, China's new special envoy on African issues. He said he hoped China would join the rest of the international community in refusing to "offer a lifeline" to Mr Mugabe's failed regime, which has led to near universal unemployment and record inflation.

Privately, diplomats believe that while Zimbabwe once seemed like an opportunity for China to make diplomatic gains in an area abandoned by Western countries, Beijing had been unable to avoid the evidence of the harm being done to Zimbabwe's people.

It was hard to see what long-term result China could get when Zimbabwe failed to meet basic standards of economic discipline

• "Zimbabwe: China to Withdraw Support for Mugabe Regime" (SW Radio Africa)
• "China is to withdraw backing for Mugabe" (Daily Telegraph)
   

South Africa: Centre for Chinese Studies

I've just learned about the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa which bills itself as "the first institution devoted to the study of China on the African continent."  They offer a weekly briefing on China-related African news and a research report on Chinese investment in African infrastructure and construction sectors. They also appear to be doing some work on Indian investment on the continent.

This is an absolutely fantastic and important undertaking.  In fact I know of no other academic center dedicated to China-Africa studies in the world, even in China.  I will follow their work with interest!