Thursday, September 2, 2010

As Chinese firms pour billions of dollars into mining, energy and infrastructure deals in Africa, Beijing is turning a blind eye to rogue regimes that stand to reap the benefits, observers say.

Guinea’s military rulers are the latest on the continent to receive a pledge of a massive infusion of Chinese cash - at least $7 billion over five years in the mining sector from China Investment Fund (CIF).

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao heads to Egypt for a summit with African leaders this weekend, observers say his government should be held more accountable for opaque investments made by firms with possible state links.

Kissy Agyeman-Togobo, at IHS Global Insight, said the deal “could provide Guinea’s junta with financial independence from traditional Western donors in the wake of security force brutalities... in which over 150 people died”.

It “once again throws up the question of China’s oft-criticised approach of dealing with dubious regimes, particularly at this sensitive time when Guinea’s relationship with the international community hangs in the balance”.

In September, troops opened fire at a public rally in Conakry held in protest against junta leader captain Moussa Dadis Camara ahead of presidential elections planned for January. The regime says 56 people were killed.

From oil in Sudan, Angola and Nigeria to bauxite in Guinea, China has been pouring money into natural resources not only in Africa but also around the globe, with other investments in Peruvian iron and Mongolian copper.

Over the past five years, Chinese direct investment in Africa has soared, from $491 million in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2008, according to official Chinese figures.

The investment spree seems as though it is designed to gain access to resources to fuel China’s hectic economic growth.

State media reported yesterday that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao denied Beijing was developing ties in Africa purely to satisfy its need for energy.

Speaking while on the plane to Egypt, where he was due to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation begins today, Wen said Beijing had an important role to play in Africa’s development.

“Energy cooperation is just one area” where China and Africa were working together, he said.

“In no way has China come to Africa solely for its energy sources,” he added, according to comments carried by People’s Daily.

“The aim for China in helping Africa is to reinforce its own role in development,” Wen said.

While some Western critics have accused China of worsening repression and human rights abuses in Africa by supporting countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe in its drive to gain access to natural resource, other observers have said the closer ties between the two sides are focused on industries that would improve African development such as agriculture, electric power, transportation and water drainage.

Meanwhile, Beijing says investments like the CIF one - which was announced less than two weeks after the bloodshed in Conakry - are strictly private.

But a recent report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a panel of experts chosen by Congress, suggested that Hong Kong-based CIF was in fact part of a nebulous group of companies with links to the state.

“There is evidence that several of its key personnel have ties to Chinese state-owned enterprises and government agencies... and possibly China’s intelligence apparatus,” the commission said.

But Syetarn Hansakul, a Singapore-based analyst for Deutsche Bank, said she was not convinced that the ruling Communist party was pulling strings on deals made abroad by Chinese firms.

“The government explicitly said, ‘We need to build up energy resources and reserves’,” Hansakul said.

“When they receive a broad mandate like that... naturally companies think ‘We need to secure [resources]’.

But they choose the countries where they invest.

“There is no agenda... to support any government or group,” said Hansakul. “It is commercially-driven, it is business-dealing, sometimes with consequences.”

Barry Sautman, an associate professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said China did not deserve to be singled out for investments made with controversial regimes.

In Sudan “China is certainly not alone in developing the oil industry”, Sautman said, noting that it was linked to projects in which India’s ONGC and Malaysia’s Petronas, both state-owned firms, held major stakes.

Both firms, in addition to China’s PetroChina and Sinopec, have been accused by US non-profit organisation Investors Against Genocide of “helping to fund the genocide in Darfur” in western Sudan.