Robert Mugabe: China is doing everything that Africa’s colonizers should have done

[Hiptullha]

This is a slur on colonisers. Rhodesia under Ian Smith was an advanced, first world country.

I seriously doubt that most Africans were able to enjoy the fruits of this advanced, first world country.

 

[windywine]

two different forms of imperalism/colonizing.


like I said China way is slower, and less bloody.

China get's Africa resources right. then it finances these projects and sends over Chinese to build them


but the same problem remains the Africans who are corrupt.

war and internal conflicts will remain as well

At least Africa are getting hospitals, high ways, railways, dams, electricity plants and schools. That's the difference. BTW, there is no many qualified, trained or educated workers in Africa. Time is money.

 

[Peshwa]

At least Africa are getting hospitals, high ways, railways, dams, electricity plants and schools. That's the difference. BTW, there is no many qualified, trained or educated workers in Africa. Time is money.

That's exactly what the Americans have/had done, except they used multinational companies as front for political gains, while China uses state owned companies...

Americans were smarter in the sense that they didnt get their hands stained (directly) in the process, while China is doing so quite overtly...

I don't see anything wrong with it....its all business! Let's not make it personal..America, nor China is doing this to improve the world, its doing so for their respective benefit

 

[denel]

Mugabe is just shit stirrer and master orator. He took a well developed country and ran it into the ground so much so as one thought it had reached the bottom, he took a space and went further deeper.

Once he is fed up with the Chinese, he will do an about turn and take everything away.

 

[axisofevil]

I'm not sure you are aware of the terrible crimes of imperialism. This is not even close. It is like getting a paper cut and comparing it to a Saudi execution.

Nazi Germany actually took many hints from colonial governments. Concentration camps actually started out as a British invention during the British-Boer war in South Africa. Old Germany pioneered the use of poison gas against Africans. The use of food as a weapon (as outlined in the Nazi Hunger Plan, which was to be used to starve 80 million Eastern Europeans to death) was first used by the British in West Bengal. Fascism is the natural evolution of imperialism.

King Leopold's personal fiefdom in the Congo was so extreme that even British and German colonial governments were disgusted. In Congo, King Leopold's enforcers would enslave Africans to work rubber plantations and cut off their hands if they worked too slowly.

China has brought nothing but prosperity for Africa. Perhaps the prosperity was not shared equally by all Africans. However it is a far cry from concentration camps, poison gas and starvation. There is nothing that China is doing now that the US has not done in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Different times...no need to bring it up. China did many terrible things in its past. As for colonization, we can play that game and call you out on Tibet and Taiwan. Don't forget border issues and island creation in the South China sea.




However, China is not doing anything different than the West. They are merely playing the game better and have nobody but the West to thank. Its due to the Western attitudes that have prevailed for so long, that have allowed China to be readily accepted by African nations. not to speak of the money and the lack rules that often come with working with the West, which isn't a bad issue but for dictators and corrupt bureaucrats......its an opportunity to make $$$. The ground realities are far different from what these African leaders say and present. The average African on the street can see thru the BS>

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

The chinese move in Africa is straight from the pages of the book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"...
Companies like Halliburton have served as fronts for economic imperialism for a long time..
China is no different here and is not reinventing the wheel....and certainly isn't making Africa a better place..

Nevertheless, I also believe that China has to do what's in its best interest as does Africa...So if the Africans do pledge their national/natural resources to China for infrastructural gains, that's their prerogative..

But lets not mask it as being a savior of Africa...
Africa's problems are well beyond lack of infrastructure and China has done little to help solve the core problems in Africa..

so what about Japanese actions in Southeast Asia during the 1980's? Seems to me they did something similar i.e. ODA used only for buying Japanese goods and services.

 

[Peshwa]

so what about Japanese actions in Southeast Asia during the 1980's? Seems to me they did something similar i.e. ODA used only for buying Japanese goods and services.

I think its a common practice among nations...Japan is no different! In fact the Japanese definitely had imperial designs in the past, so I wouldnt rule out their actions as having different motives...
Nevertheless, the Japanese and American way of "influence" is not as obvious as the Chinese model..
China will provide arms to the Sudanese rebels, as will America, except that the Americans will do so under the guise of non-state arms dealers with little connection to the US Govt. For a common man, this paints a different picture of America and China...

China needs to improve its practices..or get a stronger worldwide media presence..

 

[Zsari]

like I said China is going a different route.

it's neo-colonizing of the 21st century

Africa will always get the shorter end of the stick til they can stand on their own two feet alone and deal with rampant corruption.

Before you make that statement, you first need to define what colonialism, and neo-colonialism are. It is by definition an attempt at control, either through direct control via military means of the old colonialism or indirect control via political & economic means of the neo-colonialism. The end goal has always been the control of internal affair of the client state. And that China has no interest in. It is not to say that China is in Africa for altruistic reasons, but to conduct business that favors the investing party does not constitute colonialism, or neo-colonialism.

 

[Steve781]

I seriously doubt that most Africans were able to enjoy the fruits of this advanced, first world country.

They were poorer than the white population but they didn't starve like they do now.

 

[Shotgunner51]

Xi's African tour highlights China's expanding security role on continent | The Japan Times
China pledges $100 million military aid - NewsDay Zimbabwe

A desire to protect economic investment is leading to a revision of the China’s hands-off approach to the security affairs of the region. Other than being a provider of infrastructure and consumer of resources, Beijing is committed to expand role as a protector of regional security. Among a list of pledges:

• Provide $100 million in military aid to the African Union’s standby force, which will build the continent’s “capacity for immediate crisis response".
• Provide a helicopter squad to assist UN peace operations in Africa.
• Offer military training to 2,000 peacekeepers from African countries in the next five years.
• Rolling out 10 demining programmes in Africa.
• Sent an infantry battalion to support peacekeeping efforts in South Sudan.
• Continuous deployment of frigates to fight piracy off the Somali coast.
• Build resupply station and naval base in Djibouti.
• Extend deployment of army biochemical unit in combating viral disease like Ebola.

 

[denel]

They were poorer than the white population but they didn't starve like they do now.

I was there right after the independence and saw how well off majority of the population was and in 1985 how the middle class had emerged; slowly he went after his opponents in matabeleland with help from the north koreans. His first wife and then his second wife treated everything like their fifedom.
Back in 2009, my friend son does biweekly deliveries of car parts into Harare. People were begging on the border not for money as it was useless but for something to eat. There are approx 4 mil zims out of their country due to this ***'s actions and inept African Union who gives him elderly statesman stature. Mandela held him in bad light as did all Botswana's leadership.

 

[Jaanbaz]

China is colonizing Africa. Just in a slow and methodical way

At least they are not shipping thousands of Africans to work in fields in China.

 

[Steve781]

I was there right after the independence and saw how well off majority of the population was and in 1985 how the middle class had emerged; slowly he went after his opponents in matabeleland with help from the north koreans. His first wife and then his second wife treated everything like their fifedom.
Back in 2009, my friend son does biweekly deliveries of car parts into Harare. People were begging on the border not for money as it was useless but for something to eat. There are approx 4 mil zims out of their country due to this ***'s actions and inept African Union who gives him elderly statesman stature. Mandela held him in bad light as did all Botswana's leadership.

Completely agree, although it was probably impractical to have 5 percent of the population running everything. Abel Muzorewa should have stayed in charge.

 

[70U63]

At the end of the day, if they weak/poor countries can't use this opportunities to 'build' their nation in healthy way and improve themselves, nothing much other people can do.
Human rights bs can't solve their problem.

 

[Beast]

That's exactly what the Americans have/had done, except they used multinational companies as front for political gains, while China uses state owned companies...

Americans were smarter in the sense that they didnt get their hands stained (directly) in the process, while China is doing so quite overtly...

I don't see anything wrong with it....its all business! Let's not make it personal..America, nor China is doing this to improve the world, its doing so for their respective benefit

When did American build high rise apartment, railway or stadium for the Africans?

Checkout the Angola project or Kenya and you will know how much more China in just these 5 years has contributed compare to westerner 150years of Africa/west of relationship.

The American the most build a symbolic hospital and some small charity organization, none can matched those kind of massive project like dam or power station in high China provided for the Africans.

 

[Kaniska]

If also, China colonise it, still then one good thing of China is it does not interfere in the political affair of the countries..Classic example is Pakistan..In spite of so many issues China never ever gives any direction at its political affairs..So in one way, China is keeping its relationship very simple and hassle free..But in contrast, West always interferes wherever it have its presence in different degree...