China and Human Rights

Criticism of China’s human rights is (predictably) increasing in the West, as China rises. Some of the concerns are genuine, while others may hide political agenda. Common criticisms are over areas such as human rights, environment, and labor standards. As Chinese enterprises expand overseas, especially in Africa, criticisms of exploitation are increasing.

For example, China’s silence on the Sudanese government’s policy in Darfur suggests that China is not concerned about human rights; just about its own economic interests. In Angola for example, where there are lots of oil interest (not just from China), some Chinese companies have been accused of ignoring local issues, for example by importing many materials from China rather than sourcing it locally, and even hiring Chinese only, excluding local Angolans.

A BBC television report in early July 2007 even noted that at an African/Chinese conference, the West was not there, implying the West could perhaps have been able to tame Chinese attempts at exploitation. Nothing was mentioned about the decades of Western exploitation of Africa that continues today albeit more benignly.

A BBC web site forum even asked, Is China Africa’s new master?, perhaps not realizing that by saying new, it appeared to acknowledge a role that the West currently attempts to fill.

It seems that there may be some double standards here.

As detailed on this site’s section on Africa and trade, economics, and poverty issues, these western nations are the very ones that have exploited Africa for many decades. Some of these nations have even overthrown potential or fledgling democracies, favoring brutal dictators that have bled their countries.

For example, the economic policies of the IMF and World Bank, backed by Washington and Europe have been very detrimental to Africa. From Structural Adjustment Policies to economic dumping (often called food aid) to other aspects of unfair aid, debt and trade deals presented as historic positive deals for Africa, these issues seem to have been ignored when raising concerns about China’s involvement (or, as the previous link also notes, are ignored even when discussing Africa).

Firoze Manji, editor of the popular pan-African social issues web site, Pambazuka News, also raises the important point that in comparison to Europe and the US, China in Africa is still a small player.

It is worth quoting Manji at some length:

After going into further detail (worth reading) Manji concludes that China offers potential for Africa which some Western countries finds threatening, but at the same time is taking advantage of the more open environment:

Many western news outlets and campaigners are quick to point out that China offers aid with no strings attached, whereas western nations offer aid with conditions tied to human rights. While there is some truth to this, it is often overlooked that a lot of conditions by western countries are not about human rights, but about opening up African economies and it is these conditions that are often criticized.

Inter Press Service (IPS) noted some problems with a huge deal between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008. The deal involved China pledging a $9 billion loan as well as building massive new copper and cobalt mines, 4,000 km of roads and railways, upgrading Congo’s beleaguered mining sector, as well as build schools, hospital and clinics. In return, Beijing secured copper and cobalt concessions that over 25 years would supply Chinese manufacturing with 6.8 million tons of copper and 620,000 tons of cobalt.

It was dubbed by Kinshasa as Congo’s Marshall Plan, but the IMF and Western powers didn’t appear to like it, pressuring (and succeeding) Congo to renegotiate for $6 billion under the threat of losing aid from the IMF and the West. Some bonus money ($23 million) from Chinese companies to their Congolese counterparts seems to have gone missing leading to a lot of criticism of China. The amount of criticism this generated led China to wonder if the West was trying to undermine its presence there.

When interviewed by IPS Shen Jiru, an expert on international relations with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences argued that China was providing free-interest [sic] loans and aid and we are a reliable backup for Africa’s economic development.

According to IPS, in 2009, China pledged to give Africa 10 billion dollars in concessional loans over the next three years, and is accelerating its drive to pour vast sums of money into developing infrastructure in many African nations. This has been welcomed by African leaders. For instance, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Tanzania in May 2010, said China’s interests were consistent with those of African countries striving to overcome the legacy of reliance on commodity exports and move towards industrialization.

It made sense for China to spend in Africa, Zenawi felt, because its massive foreign exchange reserves are largely denominated in dollars, and Beijing needs to diversify those assets. It’s in their interest to spend tens of billions of dollars in Africa and it’s in our interest to have access to those tens of billions of dollars.

So, it seems that Africans should be cautious about China’s interests in Africa, but also be aware that criticism levied against China by others such as various Western countries may also have double standards and be part of a wider agenda whereby the rich countries are feeling threatened by the rise of a potential economic competitor. Western standards of human rights and raising those as issues are a good thing, but their own aid policies have often been with their own interests in mind, so caution is probably warranted for anyone bearing gifts.