China’s Xi Jinping Visits; Africa Asks, What Are We Getting Out of This?

Chinese trade with Africa has grown fourfold in six years, up to 2 million. Chinese are based there, and China’s African investments are worth near $200 billion. Still, Africans are questioning if trade is tilted too much in China’s favor, with leaders and pundits suggesting that selling off minerals and natural resources and failing to develop a manufacturing base repeats the legacy of colonialism, reports Peter Ford for the Christian Science Monitor. Chinese scholars, too, warn against exploitative development following in colonial patterns. Other academics defend China, arguing that the nation invests in infrastructure. “An increasing number of Chinese firms are moving their factories from China, where labor costs are rising, to Africa, where they are close to raw materials and able to export goods such as shoes or clothing to Europe and the US under the favorable trade deals,” Ford reports. Good foreign relations require balance and political stability. – YaleGlobal