A feature piece on the front page of last Friday's China Daily honored Gabonese President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba. President Bongo, the article boasted, is one of Africa's longest serving leaders, ruling Gabon for an uninterrupted 38 years. As much as I would like to congratulate him on his impressive reign, seven-term presidents tend not to be great defenders of political freedom.
Corruption and election rigging, however, pale in comparison to the crimes of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. For over three years, the Sudanese government has been perpetrating genocide in the western region of Darfur. According to the Coalition for International Justice, 400,000 civilians have been slaughtered at the hands of the Janjaweed militias, in a calculated campaign of rape, murder, forced starvation and destruction - all of this organized by, and carried out on the orders of President al-Bashir.
What do these two - and 46 other -African leaders have in common? They all arrived in Beijing on Friday for a weekend-long forum on building Chinese-African relations. The expected outcome is an agreement on aid and trade that will usher in a new era of Sino-African cooperation.
However unsavory these men may be, Chinese President Hu Jintao certainly had a long list of reasons to be friendly with them these past few days, a list capped by a trio of motives I will glibly dub "the three C's": Crude, Commerce and Cooperation.
The first, Crude (oil), is pretty simple. Africa is abundant in natural resources from iron to cotton, and, more importantly, it has largely untapped oil reserves waiting for the right customer. With so much of the world's oil supply locked up by the United States, Beijing is ready to look anywhere to secure their own supply for the coming years.
The second reason, Commerce, has to do not with China's imports, but its exports. Beijing sees Africa as a massive, unexploited market and a prime destination for cheap goods. You name it - clothing, electronics, industrial machinery - the Chinese make it, they make it cheap and they are aching to sell it.
The third reason President Hu has been particularly cordial with his African guests this weekend is Cooperation. China is in the market for friends, especially at the United Nations, and the African states can be a strong voting bloc. Africa has largely been ignored by the United States and Europe since the end of the cold war and is open territory today.
The African governments have their own incentives to sign onto China's deal. To begin with, President Hu will probably offer extensive debt relief and provide aid intended to build infrastructure for transportation, education and health. This comes in addition to the benefits of trade and the revenues that will accrue as a result of having a big market for Africa's raw materials.
In addition to the monetary gains, African leaders are undoubtedly wooed by China's style. Since the days of colonialism, Europe and America have engaged Africa on condescending, imperialistic terms, whether as Africa's savior or governor. China has approached Africa on strictly economic terms, with no underlying agenda of reform. It must be refreshing.
But rewind: Why is it so refreshing, and to whom are these theoretical benefits accruing? It's refreshing because rulers like Omar al-Bashir can get their cash, no questions asked, get back to their palaces and get on with their genocides without being hassled by foreign liberals. Indeed, Friday's issue of the China Daily also featured an article entitled, "CNPC [China National Petroleum Corporation] in Sudan, model of cooperation." President al-Bashir himself was quoted, thanking the CNPC for building Sudan's oil industry, and thanking it further for the peace CNPC had helped bring to his country. It's enough to make a man choke on his dumplings.
Though Beijing has certainly been cordial and respectful with Africa's rulers, their business plan, fundamentally, is no different from the old mercantilist agendas of the imperial powers: Extract raw materials from Africa and then sell the finished goods back to them.
Under an ideal agreement, Chinese firms would be required to partner with African firms, in much the same way foreign companies wishing to do business in China are required to do. This would train a new generation of native African managers to build and run their industry indigenously. But genocidal dictators tend not to have their minds on the common man of tomorrow.
I don't mean to imply that every African government is corrupt beyond repair, but many are, and big opportunities like this tend to bring out the worst.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is not one to be particularly fussy over things like human rights and good government. In its foreign affairs, China is strictly business and is outspokenly opposed to interference in other countries' internal affairs.
Fair enough, but when it comes to genocide, a new set of rules must apply.
Sam DuPont is a junior majoring in international relations. He is currently studying abroad in Beijing, China. He can be reached at samuel.dupont@tufts.edu.
