Underdevelopment and aid: search for a right balance - Part II

To be sure, there is truth to this critique. Chinese have illegally harvested timber and ripped off resources. But this critique of China in Africa as neo-colonialism is not the total truth and omits that China could trigger an African rise out of poverty. Indeed, World Bank figures already show that Chinese investments have sped Africa’s pace of growth.

As Beijing sees it, China in Africa in the 21st century will be like Japan in East and Southeast Asia in the half century after the end of World War Two. Japan, then, as China today, was uninterested in promoting democracy and human rights. It too acted on economic imperatives. But if one plugs into the economic dynamo, what Japanese called the “lead goose,” one benefits. One learns best practices almost unconsciously. The boon of the dynamic leader spreads and spills over into the nations playing catch-up.

There is a flying goose effect, that is, the lead Asian country keeps moving up the value-added ladder as labour costs increase and the currency rises in value. That prices the country out of lower-end markets. The production is then transferred to follower geese, who then similarly move up economically. Those that don’t join the formation, as the military tyranny in Burma and the Stalinist sultanate in North Korea did not follow Japan, lag. Similarly, those Africans who see China as a saviour would in fact benefit from joining China and following its lead.

China is hot-housing this flying-geese development. Beijing is pouring money into Africa for everything from infrastructure to business ties. It builds five special economic zones, which were pioneered in Taiwan, that support business and welcome hard-workers to make life easier for Chinese investors and exporters. From these five spots, economic dynamism will spread as Africans are attracted to the SEZs. Governments will then build infrastructures and compete for successful enterprises.

Finally, Chinese are moving to Africa in unprecedented numbers, carrying entrepreneurial frenzy and ties to lower-end factories that look to move to low-wage Africa to stay competitive. There are already more Chinese in the former UK colony of Nigeria than there were English at the height of the British empire; there are already more Chinese in the former Portuguese colony of Angola than there are Portuguese.

Expect millions more Chinese to relocate, since close to 300 million are still locked in Mao-era style stagnation in China’s countryside. Some millions of these hard-working, ambitious people see Africa as a land of opportunity. Compared to Europeans, Chinese live more poorly and work at a lower income for smaller slices in profits, yet have already found numerous profitable opportunities in Africa where Europeans found none.

Critics of Chinese policy who see China ripping off Africa and helping to entrench corrupt African elites may turn out to be right. But Africans are willing to give China the chance to replicate in Africa wealth-generating processes that have made Asia the fastest growing region of the world since 1945, with no end in sight. Europe, many Africans conclude, failed in Africa, and it’s hard to fault Africans for finding a way ahead by tying in with China. Perhaps the Chinese and Africans are right and, as Japan transformed Asia, so China can transform Africa.