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

[Shotgunner51]

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

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe shakes hands with Chinese president Xi Jinping. (DIRCO ZA)

Beijing has long supported Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe despite claims of rampant corruption and repression committed by his government. Today (Dec. 4), Mugabe returned the favor.

Speaking after Chinese president Xi Jinping at the China-Africa summit underway in Johannesburg, Mugabe countered the notion that China is a neocolonialist that is draining Africa of its natural resources:

“Here is a man representing a country once called poor, a country which was never our colonizer. He is doing to us what we expected those who colonized us yesterday to do… We will say he is a God-sent person.”

Mugabe is referring to the wave of Chinese infrastructure projects and loans given out across the continent over the past decade. Critics say these projects have done little to develop local economies and that China is exploiting the region while ignoring conflict human rights abuses.

Zimbabwe, a former British colony whose economy has struggled under Mugabe, has been home to Chinese infrastructure projects for decades now. In the 1980s, China built the country’s National Sports Stadium, its largest shopping mall, as well as hospitals and power stations. China is also the largest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco.

Xi visited Zimbabwe earlier this week, and the two countries pledged to stimulate Zimbabwe’s struggling economy. China promised to building a new parliament for the government. “Our detractors have sought to portray our relationship [as] purely commercials ties, driven by China’s desire to extract our mineral resources,” Mugabe said. “Our relations go much deeper.”

 

[Shotgunner51]

China’s Xi Jinping pledges $60 billion to help Africa solve its problems its own way - Quartz

Xi Jinping (second from left) at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg. (DIRCO ZA)

Chinese president Xi Jinping has announced $60 billion for development projects in Africa over the next three years, calling for a “lift in China-Africa relations” to promote a mutually beneficial partnership. Xi was speaking at a China-Africa summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It’s a familiar routine. Since the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation began in 2000 with a summit held every three years, Chinese leaders have pledged funding and commitment to building a “win win” relationship with the continent. Critics say trade ties between China and African states mainly benefit Chinese businesses and investors. Tensions between workers and Chinese mangers as well as between African and Chinese migrants are also apparent.

Perhaps as a result of growing grievances, Beijing has more than doubled its financing pledges since 2006. This year observers wondered whether the pattern would continue given the country’s slowing economy. The promised funds include zero interest loans as well as export credits and concessional loans.

The pledge is another way that Beijing is making efforts to assuage African leaders that investment will continue. Xi also promised that China would train 200,000 African technicians, bringing some of them to China. “China and Africa share a common future. We Chinese and Africans have forged a profound friendship through our common historical experience and our common struggles,” Xi said.

He also sought to highlight China’s difference with Western partners, saying, “China supports the resolution of African issues by Africans in the African way.”

 

[C130]

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

but even then corruption will always set Africa back.

China will take Africa's resources while investing in infrastructure which they will FINANCE and BUILD.


it's a WIN WIN WIN for the neo-colonizers


if a long time dictator is praising China then that's just icing on the cake.


yellow is the new white

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

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

but even then corruption will always set Africa back.

China will take Africa's resources while investing in infrastructure which they will FINANCE and BUILD.


it's a WIN WIN WIN for the neo-colonizers


if a long time dictator is praising China then that's just icing on the cake.


yellow is the new white

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.

 

[C130]

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.

China has brought Africa prosperity??

not really. like I said corruption will always bring Africa down. Africa will always be used by foreign powers whether it be from the West or now the East.

it's just a different form of imperialism and colonizing.


Africa is just a natural resource hub for China and a place to dump it's products.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

China has brought Africa prosperity??

not really. like I said corruption will always bring Africa down. Africa will always be used by foreign powers whether it be from the West or now the East.

it's just a different form of imperialism and colonizing.


Africa is just a natural resource hub for China and a place to dump it's products.

Did China use military force, concentration camps, poison gas, starvation or torture to get any resources? If not then it is not imperialism. Even if what you said was true, the relationship between China and Africa in such a case is no different than the relationship between Philippines and Mexico, and the US.

 

[C130]

Did China use military force, concentration camps, poison gas, starvation or torture to get any resources? If not then it is not imperialism. Even if what you said was true, the relationship between China and Africa in such a case is no different than the relationship between Philippines and Mexico, and the US.

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.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

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.

is the US a colonial power in Southeast Asia and Latin America?

 

[C130]

is the US a colonial power in Southeast Asia and Latin America?

nope but multi-national companies I I guess could be considered the new form of imperialism/colonizing

 

[windywine]

China has brought Africa prosperity??

not really. like I said corruption will always bring Africa down. Africa will always be used by foreign powers whether it be from the West or now the East.

it's just a different form of imperialism and colonizing.


Africa is just a natural resource hub for China and a place to dump it's products.

There is a fundamental difference among what the western colonizers and Chinese have done to Africa. Western colonizers are draining resources and wealth from Africa via destabilizing regions and countries, inducing wars and selling weapons. Chinese are draining resources too, but in return Chinese brought Africa basic infrastructure (e.g. hospital, high way, railway, dam, electricity plant and school as well), which is the basis for prosperity.

 

[C130]

There is a fundamental difference among what the western colonizers and Chinese have done to Africa. Western colonizers are draining resources and wealth from Africa via destabilizing regions and countries, inducing wars and selling weapons. Chinese are draining resources too, but in return Chinese brought Africa basic infrastructure (e.g. hospital, high way, railway, dam, electricity plant and school as well), which is the basis for prosperity.

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

 

[windywine]

China has brought Africa prosperity??

not really. like I said corruption will always bring Africa down. Africa will always be used by foreign powers whether it be from the West or now the East.

it's just a different form of imperialism and colonizing.


Africa is just a natural resource hub for China and a place to dump it's products.

Of course there was, is, and will be high degree of corruption in Africa. Chinese may take advantage of corruption to favor their business in Africa. In contrast, to destabilize Africa, Western will take advantage of every chance e.g. corruption, religious and ethnic conflicts.

 

[Hiptullha]

Mugabe really shouldn't be talking considering he is the black version of Africa's colonizers.

 

[Steve781]

Mugabe really shouldn't be talking considering he is the black version of Africa's colonizers.

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

 

[Peshwa]

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..