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China's African activity comes under increasing international scrutiny
By Caitlin Harrington
06 May 2008
Beijing's expanding presence in Africa is coming under mounting scrutiny, with United States and African officials citing a recent Chinese arms shipment bound for Zimbabwe as the latest sign that China's Africa strategy needs an overhaul.
South African dockworkers at the port of Durban were the first to refuse a Chinese merchant ship carrying ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds that were bound for land-locked Zimbabwe in late April.
The governments of Angola, Mozambique and Namibia subsequently declared their refusal to accept the arms shipment, which many feared would be used in acts of violence and political repression in Zimbabwe over the disputed results of the 29 March presidential election.
James Swan, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said African countries' rejection of the arms shipment is the latest sign that China's secretive bilateral trade relationships with regimes in Africa may backfire in the long term.
"What's most striking about this is it was an African reaction to the situation," Swan said at a 28 April briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. "This is a clear example in which the relationship between China and Africa is not going to be determined just by China, or even by China in a specific bilateral relationship, but more broadly by Africans across the continent."
He continued: "These events actually illuminate some challenges the Chinese government may have [to make] in the future."
The outcome of the presidential election in Zimbabwe remained unclear at the time of going to press. The incumbent, Robert Mugabe, was locked in a dispute with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over who had won. Human Rights Watch, the US-based international non-governmental organisation, has accused Mugabe of engaging in a systematic terror campaign to intimidate the opposition.
Political leaders in Angola, which overtook Saudi Arabia as the biggest crude oil supplier to China in the first quarter of this year, say they rejected the Chinese arms shipment - despite their close trade relationship with Beijing - because they were worried about mounting violence in Zimbabwe.