China Creates Slave Empire In Africa?

Zambian miners protest over low wages. The response of the Chinese mine overseers? Shoot them. Eleven of them are in hospital and two are critically wounded.

Is the story a microcosm of the Chinese business relationship with Africa? Unfortunately, it seems so. Even in China's draconian system at home, which outlaws labour unions, it's hard to imagine an incident of this nature. We might infer that these managers thought they could get away with this sort of brutality in this renewed Heart of Darkness where the rules of their contracts (if any such documents exist) likely suggest that there are no rules. And they yet might get away with it.

Not all the facts are in, yet. The Chinese operators say their supervisors were attacked. But then the story gets weird. They say the managers "fired into the air". Well, you don't wound 11 people by firing into the air. You might hit some trees. Maybe a passing bird. Or, if they were inside, the ceiling. Perhaps a ricochet or a randomly falling bullet would hit one or two people - possibly the shooters themselves. Not eleven people. This cover story doesn't pass the smell test. And even if this incident can be explained away, the overall picture of China's business interests in Africa is looking increasingly dire.

And it's a story that isn't being told, except in the most upside-down terms. Catching the BBC last week I was disappointed (though not all that shocked) to see a feature on China's growing business interests in Africa. The piece practically mocked British and North American countries for their insistence on African nations having better governance, respect for human rights and basic labour safety standards in return for their business. In contrast, Chinese business interests, with their single-minded focus on resource extraction and a quick profit without these sorts of lofty considerations were highlighted as a possible model for the entire continent - even for the rest of the developing world.

It's a complicated issue. There's no question that Africa needs development. And China's need for resources is perhaps even more urgent. On the surface, it would seem to be a natural match.

But there's a difference betweeen "development" and exploitation. There's a big gap between a sustainable business enterprise that makes a profit and a get-rich-quick scheme for government cronies at the expense of laborers treated like slaves. And the difference between classic scrambe-for-Africa colonialism and the new Chinese corporate model in the content seems to be one of efficiency of rapaciousness, with the latter-day version coming off worse.

Here, Peter Hitchens renders his verdict on China's economic pillaging of Africa:

It is my view - and not just because I was so nearly killed - that China's cynical new version of imperialism in Africa is a wicked enterprise.

 

China offers both rulers and the ruled in Africa the simple, squalid advantages of shameless exploitation.

 

For the governments, there are gargantuan loans, promises of new roads, railways, hospitals and schools - in return for giving Peking a free and tax-free run at Africa's rich resources of oil, minerals and metals...

 

'Wherever our Chinese "brothers" are they don't care about the local workers,' he complains, alleging that Chinese companies have lax safety procedures and treat their African workers like dirt.

 

In language which seems exaggerated, but which will later turn out to be at least partly true, he claims: 'They employ people in slave conditions.'

 

He also accuses Chinese overseers of frequently beating up Zambians. His claim is given force by a story in that morning's Lusaka newspapers about how a Zambian building worker in Ndola, in the Copper Belt, was allegedly beaten unconscious by four Chinese co-workers angry that he had gone to sleep on the job.

 

I later checked this account with the victim's relatives in an Ndola shanty town and found it to be true.

Africa does need development. China does need resources. And everyone wants to make a buck. When both the Chinese and African business interests and governments insist on proper corporate governance, rule of law and avoidance of working conditions that do not break down human beings, they can get all the things they want. And without the slave camps, thank you very much.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist.