Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has committed his country to a massive expansion of aid across the African continent. The infusion of $10 billion in loans and other sources of support doubles the current amount of Chinese aid to Africa, an amount that already had many fearing that China was engaged in a new scramble for Africa and brings us back to what will surely be a long-term discussion: Is Chinese aid good for Africa?
The two biggest concerns are simply that China’s involvement in Africa will amount to a new form of neocolonialism of clientelism on the one hand and that China cares not a whit for human rights issues, and thus China will be able to bolster pariah states even as the rest of the world hopes that pressure on such states will lead to change. But assuming that China does not operate in a vacuum, it also seems clear that Africans will benefit from competing interest in the continent.
I still fear the ramifications of China’s disregard for the niceties of human rights, though. The last things Africa’s Big Men need is a safety valve for kleptocratic violence.
