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When Xi Jinping made his first trip abroad as China’s President last year, he chose Africa as his destination. His pledge to aid the continent’s development with “no political strings attached” was seen by many in the West as another sign of China’s willingness to look past corruption, rights abuses and environmental degradation in its quest to secure natural resources.
Others saw not the win-win relationship Mr. Xi described on his trip but a form of neo-colonialism. “China takes from us primary goods and sells us manufactured ones,” Nigerian Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi wrote in the Financial Times. “China is a major contributor to the deindustrialization of Africa and thus African underdevelopment.”
Last week, Mr. Sanusi was ousted by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan after alleging that billions of dollars in oil revenue owed to the government were missing. His dismissal fuelled allegations of corruption at the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Mr. Sanusi’s exit has also contributed to unease that China, whose investments in Nigeria are growing, is buying the allegiance of shady regimes by promising unconditional political and financial support in exchange for raw resources.
Separating the truth from the hype surrounding Chinese mercantilism and market power is the mandate Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations set out to fulfill in their new book, By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World. Surprisingly, they portray Chinese leaders and companies as quite adaptable to local values and business practices. This is both good and bad.
In countries where corporate governance and environmental standards are high, such as Canada, Chinese companies will comply. They are eager to learn, and investments in developed countries are helping them become better corporate citizens. But in countries where corruption is high and environmental and labour standards low, don’t expect Chinese involvement to raise the bar.
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