China pledges to grant more aid to Africa

[Sky]

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90...83/6314097.html (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6314097.html)
China has signed agreements with 28African countries to exempt their debts and offered 13 preferential loans to 10 countries on the continent.

Wang Shichun, foreign aid department director of the Ministry of Commerce, made the remarks here in an online forum.

He said that the country would soon dispatch the first group of51 agricultural experts to Africa, an effort to improve local agricultural levels.

At the same time, medicine and medical equipments for eight anti-malaria centers have been delivered, and the first group of experts will soon leave for the continent.

China has gradually implemented its policies to aid Africa since the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held last November, demonstrating its keeping of promises and being a real friend of Africa, said Wang, quoting local media from Lesotho.

He stressed that the country has never sought "neo-colonialism" in Africa, but had engaged in "economic and technology cooperation which proved to be beneficial to both sides."

"The process of foreign aid works should be more transparent in the future", said Wang, adding that the country would continue with foreign exchanges and cooperation and draw on international aid expertise to improve its own work.

[Wanted Man]

Very interesting. A few days ago, someone of the Workers Party of Belgium hosted a conference on the future of China at the Marxist University in Antwerp. The subject of Sino-African relations came to the fore here as well. He cited this year-old article from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1939380,00.html

Some interesting stuff:


Almost every country is getting its share. Ghana said on Thursday that it was close to finalising a $600m deal for a 400-megawatt hydroelectric dam. Gabon recently signed a $3bn iron ore deal with a Chinese consortium, which will help to construct a railway and container port. Last week Zambia was promised investment of $200m for a smelter to produce 150,000 tonnes of copper. Mozambique has $2.6bn for a hydroelectric dam. Since the start of the year Egypt has seen its trade with China surge by 47.6% to reach nearly $2bn. Chinese investors and state agencies have spent billions on road-building in Kenya, a hydroelectric dam in Ghana and a mobile phone network in Ethiopia.

The biggest deals have been energy-related. Squeezed out of much of the Middle East by the United States, China now gets a third of its oil from Africa. The main suppliers have reaped the rewards. Angola has a $3bn line of credit from China. Nigeria recently sold a stake in an oil and gas field for $2.3bn - China's largest overseas acquisition yet. More deals are on the way. This weekend's summit is expected to wrap up with a new package of aid and trade.

But China is not just buying resources, it is selling a model of development. While the west focuses on political freedoms and universal rights, Beijing says the priority should be on improving living standards and national independence. The superiority of this approach, it argues, has been proved by success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The interests at stake:


But the growing influence of China has provoked unease among an unlikely coalition of US conservatives and global human rights groups. The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, said this week that Chinese banks ignored human rights and environmental standards when lending in Africa. Amnesty accuses Beijing of selling tanks and fighter aircraft to Sudan, where it says they have been used to commit massive violations of human rights in Darfur. China has also blocked UN sanctions against Sudan. It insists that it will not "interfere in other countries' domestic affairs, but also claims to be great friend of the African people and a responsible major power", said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch. "But that doesn't square with staying silent while mass killings go on in Darfur."

However, Chinese academics say that the west is hypocritical, having long exploited Africa for resources and given little in return, except lectures. "The big difference is that China does not attach political strings," said Liu Naiya of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. "When western countries offer aid they usually insist on things like multi-party democracy. But China's aid is pure-hearted. This summit proves how successful its diplomatic policy has been."

[w0lf]

Surprising, but good news.

[bootleg42]

Originally posted by Van [email protected] 01, 2008 12:59 am
the Marxist University in Antwerp.
Wait....there's a Marxist university???? Someone explain please.

[Faux Real]

Originally posted by bootleg42+January 01, 2008 02:30 am--> (bootleg42 @ January 01, 2008 02:30 am)
Van [email protected] 01, 2008 12:59 am
the Marxist University in Antwerp.
Wait....there's a Marxist university???? Someone explain please.[/b]
If I understand this correctly, it is probably like the Frankfurt school. I could be wrong though.

From the Worker's Party of Belgium site:
The fall of the Berlin Wall was supposed to inaugurate an era of universal peace. Twelve years later, the world is further away from peace than ever. Irak, Somalia, the Congo, Afghanistan, Palestine, Irak again are only some of the countries struck by the horrors of war. With Yugoslavia, even Europe is not spared. The most powerful country in the world today openly threatens to use nuclear weapons against nations which do not possess them. At the same time, unemployment is still on the increase and living conditions for the masses are going more and more downhill.

Reasons enough to have a go at capitalism and its partner imperialism, the hidden face of globalisation. The people who demonstrated in Brussels, Barcelona and Seville know that only too well. How do the Marxists who took part in the movement analyse capitalism, globalisation and war? What alternatives do they suggest? And how do they propose putting them in practice? These are the questions which will be debated, in a relaxed and good-humoured atmosphere, at the Marxist Summer University.

After the success of the course given by the Indian Marxist Harpal Brar this winter, the Marxist Summer University is once again proposing a course in English (with workshops in English, French, Dutch and Spanish, according to demand), given this time by José Maria Sison, Filipino Marxist, and Ella Rule, English Marxist.

When?

When? From Friday 23 August at 4 p.m. to Wednesday 28 August at 6 p.m.

Where?

Internat autonome de la Communauté française, Dessus de la Ville 3 bte 37, 5660 Couvin, Belgium (near the French border, accessible by train via Brussels and Charleroi).