There is not much I can tell you about China that you don’t know already. Except, may be about its mischievous and inhumane policy in Africa. You know of course about the communistic Chinese system and government, that couldn’t care less about its own peoples, let alone about the rest of the world. This is all covered with a facade of cultural, Olympic and other mass events. You ignore, actually cause the fact, that your world is flooded with the cheapest junk, ever produced and that the worlds forests and natural resources are depleted.

Sub-Sahara Africa represents nearly one-fifth of the earth’s landmass. 300 million people get by on less than $1 a day. Thousands of children under the age of 5 are dying each day from disease. $500 billion of Western aid since World War II has barely made a dent in the poverty; its market share of world trade is shrinking as it gets left behind in the dust of globalization; a place so desperate for everything — cash, trade, investment, infrastructure — and so powerless to negotiate strategically, that it’s pretty much up for sale to the highest bidder. It is now the scene of one of the most bare-knuckled resource grabs the world has ever seen.  While economists continue to debate whether vital resources are running, China’s leadership isn’t taking any chances. In just a few years, the People’s Republic of China has become the most aggressive investor-nation in Africa. One US government official has called it a “tsunami. There are already more Chinese living in Nigeria than there were Britons during the height of the empire. From state-owned and state-linked corporations to small entrepreneurs, the Chinese are cutting a swath across the continent. At least one million Chinese citizens circulate in Africa. Beijing declared 2006 the “Year of Africa,” and China’s leaders have made one tour of Africa after another since. Unlike America’s faltering effort in Iraq, the Chinese are not spreading democracy. They’re there to get what they need to feed the machine. The phenomenon even has a name on the ground in the sub-Sahara: the Great Chinese Takeout.

Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr

Describing China’s exploits, evoke the image of a benign, post-colonial West being outfoxed by a ruthless and unscrupulous communist power, taking what we can get with little or no regard for the health or welfare of the locals. Today’s global economy has an insatiable need for raw materials. Shell predicts that the coming decade will see the world’s governments engaged in an increasingly desperate and ruthless “scramble” to secure energy supplies and natural resources. In five African countries, Mozambique (timber), Zambia (copper), Congo (a wide range of minerals), Ghana (gold) and Equatorial Guinea (oil), Chinese firms – with state-directed financing – are cutting deals, securing supplies of oil, copper, timber, natural gas, zinc, cobalt and iron.