This is the seventh in a weekly series of posts exploring themes raised in Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid. Chapter 7 of the book bears the interesting title, “The Chinese are our Friends”, and in it Moyo argues that Chinese-style aid is actually more helpful for Africa than Western-style aid. China is regarded as a good source of aid for African dictators, because it is said that the Chinese do not ask any awkward questions concerning democracy or human rights abuses.
The Sudanese government is said to have been carrying on a war against its own citizens in Darfur, using military equipment supplied by China. On the other hand, Chinese aid does come with commercial strings attached. The Chinese are seeking to be first in line to exploit African oil and mineral resources. Recently Guinea’s dictator Lansana Conte tried to cancel the iron ore mining rights which he had sold to Rio Tinto and re-sell them to China, but the Chinese presumably assessed the sovereign risk as being too high.
In any event, much of Chinese aid does go into useful infrastructure projects such as road building. Poor transport infrastructure has been a key reason for rural poverty in Africa, and China has been making significant contributions in this area. But more importantly, China has been a significant source of foreign direct investment, and there is an increasing amount of business being done between China and Africa. Substantial increases in international trade are needed for African countries to work their way out of poverty.