China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa |  | Authors: Serge Michel, Michel Beuret
Creator: Paolo Woods
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 192484
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 1568584261
Dewey Decimal Number: 337.5106
EAN: 9781568584263
ASIN: 1568584261
Publication Date: June 30, 2009
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Product Description
China has now taken Great Britain’s place as Africa’s third largest business partner. Where others only see chaos, the Chinese see opportunities. With no colonial past and no political preconditions, China is bringing investment and needed infrastructure to a continent that has been largely ignored by Western companies or nations. Traveling from Beijing to Khartoum, Algiers to Brazzaville, the authors tell the story of China’s economic ventures in Africa. What they find is tantamount to a geopolitical earthquake: The possibility that China will help Africa direct its own fate and finally bring light to the so-called “dark continent,” making it a force to be reckoned with internationally.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Engaging, Earnest, New Insights, a Great Contribution February 23, 2010
Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Of the modest number of books focused on China in Africa, this is one of the two best, and both are unique--if you buy only one, at least read my summary of the other, China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence Whereas this book is direct journalism with wonderful color photos and direct ground-truth stories, China Into Africa is a best in class collection of academic essays.
Sixteen full pages of color photos in the middle of the book were unexpected and a complete delight.
On balance between the two books, this one taught me more and provided insights I could not get elsewhere to include the clear understanding, documented across multiple encounters by the authors, that the Chinese consider any Chinese business area or housing area of, by, and for their Chinese workers, to be sovereign territory of China immune to indigenous inspection or intervention.
Highpoints for me:
+ Africa is undergoing a huge transformation, and in combination, the infusion of Chinese infrastructure with the discovery of new energy fields and the growing need of all for what Africa has, is creating a perfect environment for a wealth explosion, and the US is missing it.
+ US has given up in Africa, in large part because the US Government other than the military does not have the resources, the human capital, the area knowledge, or the innate interest to actually do something strategic. The Chinese, in contrast, are unifying and pacifying Africa with infrastructure and commerce, while gaining direct access to natural resources that they can take possession of at half the market value by controlling the supply chain and no doubt lying about how much they are extracting.
+ Chinese presence in Africa is vertically and horizontally integrated, to include relatively thorough exploitation of what I have named the eight tribes of intelligence (academic, citizen-civil sector, commercial, government, law enforcement, media, military, and non-governmental), the Chinese appear to be way ahead of the US and all others in the Information Operations (IO) domain.
+ The Chinese are introducing simple robust technologies that work and that can be understood by indigenous workers accustomed to 1950's and 1960's technologies. Chinese machines that do equivalent work to Western machines are four times cheaper
+ China handles indigenous requests for Chinese visas strategically--they quickly recognize the local movers and shakers and give them red carpet treatment, unlike Europeans and US where the consular office has no clue and treats everybody badly
+ Chinese study every Minister they need, then assign a Ministerial-level contact from China to visit, cultivate, and then keep in touch--this is so far ahead of the US light-weight approach it makes me want to cry
Some of my flyleaf notes:
+ 900 Chinese companies active across Africa
+ 750,000 Chinese immigrants in South Africa ALONE
+ Cameroon is processing 700,000 visa requests in its Beijing Embassy
+ 300 million Chinese emigrants to Africa is a stated long-term goal
+ Core Chinese approach is a win-win package deal that trades infrastructure and unconditional loans for resource futures--they are approaching each nation strategically and far superior to US and European incoherence. West focuses on humanitarian and other broad issues, Chinese focus on business and longer term win
+ Chinese are beating the West on price and performance every time, to the point that Western firms are starting to bid Chinese subcontractors.
+ Africa and Chinese appear to share a view of democracy as being where everyone decides and no one works
+ Chinese get more out of everything, to include penny pinching, working all facilities and machines 24/7 with shifts, and completely avoiding "distractions" of local engagement outside of business to business dealings
+ NGOs are viewed by the Chinese in Africa as Western tools seeking to harass and set back the Chinese
+ Chinese laborers can earn five times in Africa what they can in China--$500 a month versus $100 a month
+ China is consuming 32% of the world's rice, 47% of the world's cement, 33% of the world's cigarettes, and 10% of the world's lumber but growing rapidly
+ 91,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2007
+ Chinese goods in Africa sell for one quarter to one fifth what the African's own products sell for
+ China close to #1 in small arms sales in Africa
+ China using private security firms, up to 5,000 individuals (probably Chinese) guarding one pipeline
+ Chinese farmers in Sudan growing vegetables for sale to the large Chinese population there, making ten times what they could at home
+ Darfur is the size of France, oil there, China poised to own Sudan, which is growing 9-13% a year
+ Ethiopia has China's biggest Embassy after India
+ Washington's China watchers fall into two camps according to the authors, the Panda Huggers and the Dragon Slayers. It is clear to me as a reader and intelligence professional that neither group has a strategic analytic model or any sense of what US should be doing and why, in Africa
+ Land mines and minefields do not slow down Chinese work. They use bulldozers to set off the mines, if a worker dies their family gets a $44,000 windfall and everyone is happy
+ Chinese created economic zones in Africa that appear to be phantom zones and a tax avoidance scheme, but Africa does not have a regional means of studying and then challenging Chinese moves of this sort
+ In Zambia Chinese treat local workers the way Israelis treat the Palestinians
+ The major regional downside is Chinese deforestation and over-fishing. Bribery appears to negate whatever NGO and national constraints may be in place.
The major downside of China in Africa that came up over and over was the total shut out of local workers who gain no employment, no training, no future.
I found this book fascinating, and give it five stars for the hard work of doing ground truth face to face across multiple continents, and the photos, and the deeper personal insights than provided by the academic work. My notes do not do this book justice, if I had to recommend only one of the two, this would be the one.
Very valuable perspective-- well worth reading December 20, 2009
Melissa Cook (Patterson, NY, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand China or Africa, or both as is the case for me. I put on both my "analyst hat" and my "Africa-lover/environmentalist" hat while reading this book and found it fascinating.
The book shifts gracefully between observations on how China's government and people are ambitiously pushing for economic growth and a route out of poverty, and how Africa's different governments are capitalizing on China's need for resources. China's people and its companies are out for whatever is best for China, consequences be damned. In my work role as analyst looking at the impact of China's growth on western companies, I see this again and again. Environmental consequences of growth are of little concern. At the same time, China's workers are willing to make sacrifices in order to provide for their families that wouldn't be acceptable to workers in the more prosperous West.
The bottom line: China needs resources: minerals, timber, food commodities. And in order to gain secure long-term access to these resources, government policy supports companies as they build roads, train lines and ports in order to extract the resources they need. The local governments see cash coming in-- and infrastructure being built-- and the Chinese see access to the resources it needs. Corruption naturally follows, and from the book's commentary there doesn't seem to be much long-term sustainable benefit to Africans from the resources trade. No sustainable manufacturing-based employment is created, no skills are learned or improvement in quality of life despite billions in cash coming in.
The side effects can be severe. Chinese government policy is focused on "what's good for China. Companies turn a blind eye to the human rights or environmental fallout that may follow their influx of cash. And the book states that the two-sided trade can include shipments of weapons from China into the country that can now afford their goods thanks to commodity-related cash flow. In my trips to Rwanda this year, I never thought about who manufactured the machetes and rifles used in the genocides-- this book notes that most were Chinese-made.
The book describes the horror of Darfur and the Chinese economic support of Sudan's government. Roads, oil pipelines, drilling equipment and port capacity are all funded by Chinese oil companies as they pump oil out of Sudan's desert. Does your pension plan own stock in PetroChina? Worth asking.
Are China's actions in Africa worse than those of European colonists? Hard to tell. In most cases, European countries left Africans without functioning political systems, with an uneducated population, with historical ethnic or tribal conflicts exacerbated by arbitrarily drawn borders, with no new infrastructure built and setting countries up for a legacy of failure. And the IMF, World Bank and the UN can be hamstrung by politics and can inadvertently create problems worse than the ones they're trying to solve. So it's probably too soon to judge China. At least the African countries are getting some infrastructure built!
It is well worth watching this space to see how China's influence affects political development in various African countries, and to see if China will bow to world pressure to be a "better actor" in areas of human rights and environmentalism. Meanwhile, I'll keep expanding our greeting card business [...] which is dedicated to using our photos to raise money for organizations that preserve the environment and support economic development and human rights in Africa. At the same time I will continue to work full-time to help western institutional investors understand the geopolitical consequences of China's rampant growth--in hopes that a better balance can be struck.
Successful Chinese Entrepreneurs in Africa August 7, 2009
David Fick (Overland Park, Kansas USA)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Among the Chinese entrepreneurs featured in their book, Serge Michel and Michel Beuret give special note to the following three successful entrepreneurs who have created jobs in Africa and have improved the quality of life in the African communities they are located within.
Biscuit Factory: A prominent Chinese in Lagos is a Hong Kong-Chinese called Y T Chu, owner of the Newbisco biscuit factory and steel mills. Newbisco is a brilliant example of how Chinese entrepreneurial spirit can revive a dead business. The factory was built before independence from Britain in 1960, and consistently operated at a loss. By 2000 its biscuit production had stalled, the machinery was broken, and it had run out of ingredients. Not discouraged, Chu bought the factory in this parlous state. Today he employs 700 people working in shifts, who produce 2,100 tons of biscuits per month. Newbisco is making a profit for the first time in its history, and Chu hints at plans to expand. Newbisco barely meets 1% of Nigerian market demand, he says.
Source: China Safari, by Serge Michel and Michel Beuret, 2009, pp 1-2, 38.
Factory Owner: Born in Shanghai, Jacob Wood has already spent half of his life in Nigeria. Having run a Chinese restaurant for a long time, he took advantage of being able to bring in skilled Chinese workers at the beginning of 2000 to expand quickly, opening one factory after another. The Chinese all started by importing goods into Africa, Wood says, but what you need to do is manufacture on the spot. Today he owns two hotels, a restaurant, a construction company and 15 factories, which range from making giant air-conditioners to heavy plant machinery. He employs 300 Chinese and five times as many Nigerians.
Source: China Safari, by Serge Michel and Michel Beuret, 2009, pp 29-31, 32-35, 39, 40.
Restaurant Owner: Originally from near Shanghai, Jessica Ye arrived in the Congo-Brazzaville empty-handed in 2000. She initially opened just a restaurant there but now her businesses also include a factory that produces aluminum window frames, and shops in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire selling imported goods. At the same time, thousands of other Chinese were arriving in Congo-Brazzaville, most of them to build the infrastructure it is so badly in need of. But the Ye family preserved its lead - her husband, Zhang Ke Qian, runs Sicofor, which is developing 800,000 hectares of forest, part of which includes the National Park of Conkouati. Jessica's brother Philippe Ye has staffed a new factory in Pointe-Noire which makes furniture for the local market, and Jessica bought the beachfront Bel Air restaurant in Pointe-Noire and renamed it the Yes Club.
Source: China Safari, by Serge Michel and Michel Beuret, 2009, pp 47-53, 55-56, 58.
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An apparent surge in the purchase of African land by foreign companies and governments to grow food and other crops for export has set alarm bells ringing on and off the continent. The outcries reflect the continuing impact of the continent's history, when as recently as the last century colonial powers and foreign settler populations arbitrarily seized African land and displaced those who lived on it, lending considerable emotion to the current volatile issue.
Such foreign land acquisitions, Akinwumi Adesina argues, have the potential to hurt domestic efforts to raise food production and could limit broad-based economic growth. Many deals have little oversight, transparency or regulation, have no environmental safeguards and fail to protect smallholder farmers from losing their customary rights to use land, Adesina says.
Chinese enterprises are reportedly negotiating to lease 2.8 mn hectares in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to grow oil palm and a further 2 mn hectares in Zambia to grow jatropha (a crop used for biofuels).
The surge in interest in African land has been driven by a number of factors. On the side of investors, those include a desire for food security back home and to a lesser extent rising demand for biofuels. Behind both is the expectation of rising costs of land and water as world demand for food and other crops continues to expand.
Shortcomings and potential dangers include the risks of undermining domestic efforts to increase food production, the danger that agricultural projects aimed exclusively at foreign markets may do little to stimulate domestic economic activities, and the potential loss of land rights for local farmers.
However, Many studies point to the creation of jobs, the introduction of new technologies, improvements in the quality of agricultural production and opportunities to develop higher-value agricultural processing activities. There might even be an increase in food supplies for the domestic market and for export.
These studies advise African governments to be strategic in their approach. Recommendations to guide such land deals include:
*the free, prior and full participation and agreement of all local communities concerned - not just their leaders
*protection of the environment, based on thorough impact assessments that demonstrate a project's sustainability
*full transparency, with clear and enforceable obligations for investors, backed by specified sanctions and legislation, as necessary, and
*measures to protect human rights, labour rights, land rights and the right to food and development.
Source: "Is Continent's Land Up for Grabs?" by Roy Laishley, Africa Renewal, 25 November 2009.
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"What Will China's Legacy in Africa Be By 2049?" by Stephanie Nieuwoudt, Cape Town, Inter Press Service, 26 October 2009.
With its recent history of tremendous economic growth, China has a few lessons to teach Africans. But African governments should be vigilant in ensuring that their countries also reap benefits from their relations with China.
This warning emanated from a number of participants at the China-Africa Business Summit held at the end of last week (Oct 22- 23), sponsored partly by Corporate Africa, a publication of the UK-based Times Media Group, and the China-Africa Business Council, a non-governmental organisation promoting private investments in Africa.
Surprisingly, given China's ever-growing presence on the continent, the attendance figure at the summit was far below the expected 1,000, with only about 100 delegates arriving, forcing a last minute change of venue.
But some fascinating inputs were nevertheless made. Professor Festus Fajana, a trade policy expert at the African Union, said that "equal partnerships are important to ensure sustainable development". He urged African governments to be vigilant in ensuring that bilateral agreements with China are of mutual benefit.
"Africa wants sustainable economic growth and the continent wants diversified economies in order to reduce dependence on its traditional (Western) trade partners," explained Fajana. "Africa exports 80 percent of its oil and minerals to China. But Africa should not just be seen as a source of raw materials.
"Its economies should be diversified to take advantage of the huge Chinese market with its need for other products as well. There is, for example, great potential for agricultural products to be exported to China," he suggested.
The world is seeing a new "coupling" of Southern countries and China, with the latter's insatiable demand for minerals underpinning the growth of sub-Saharan African economies, stated Dr Martyn Davies, executive director at the Centre for Chinese Studies attached to the University of Stellenbosch near the coastal city of Cape Town.
The centre promotes exchanges of ideas, experiences and knowledge with a view to promoting analysis of the relations between Africa and China.
He believes that, "China's growth will depend on Africa's ability to supply those goods." Likewise, Africa's advancement is related to the well-being of China. "China is on target to easily meet a GDP (gross domestic product) growth of eight percent. This is no mean feat in the current economic climate."
Trade between China and Africa in 2008 was worth 107 billion dollars - a 45 percent increase from 2007.
China has been under intermittent fire about its bad human rights and environmental record and its disregard for democratic practice. It was recently slated for closing a seven billion dollar deal with Guinea, a country that suffered a military coup at the end of 2008. Several audience members found an echo in Africans' experience of China on the continent.
"Ordinary citizens get very little in turn," one delegate argued. "Government officials sign deals and pocket huge sums of money. The Chinese come to Africa and take our riches away. But the Chinese markets are closed to African entrepreneurs."
Regarding a way forward that could benefit both Africans and Chinese, Dr Rita Cooma, CEO of a New York-based management consulting firm, presented an investment model that could maximize value and investor returns with mutual pay-offs.
The model focuses on government practices and social equity (which recognises the rights and needs of citizens), economic prosperity (maintaining stable levels of economic growth and employment) and environmental sustainability (the prudent use of natural resources and effective protection of the environment).
Cooma emphasised the need for the training and development of African entrepreneurs by Chinese organisations.
The Chinese are highly skilled in disciplines like engineering and in industries such as telecommunications -- skills that are severely lacking in Africa. Chinese investors should employ African citizens and not use an imported Chinese workforce, one of the main gripes with Chinese business practice on the continent.
"Investing in schools and healthcare facilities strengthen the labour supply and contribute to economic and social development," added Cooma.
To ensure accountability and transparency, Cooma recommended the development and global ratification of disclosure standards that have to be adhered to by investor and host country. These standards pertain to labour and environmental practices.
There should also be a global reporting initiative which collects data and reports on specific social, economic and environmental impacts.
"The question is: what will China's legacy in Africa be by 2049?" Cooma asked.
"The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens have been removed from poverty. I have great faith that the Chinese can help Africa to the benefit of all," she enthused.
Source: "What Will China's Legacy in Africa Be By 2049?" by Stephanie Nieuwoudt, Cape Town, Inter Press Service, 26 October 2009.
Excellent introduction to the subject May 15, 2010
Mark Tee (OH USA)
This was a very enjoyable and informative read. These guys have an uproarious sense of humor and an almost cynical view of everyone and everything. I knew very little about the relations between Chinese government and businesses and their counterparts in Africa, but the authors didn't assume any knowledge of the subject.
A walked away with a little better understanding and the feeling that my reading time and budget were both well spent.
Get ready for World War III! November 24, 2009
Ricahrd A. Salzer (Chesapeake, Virginia, USA)
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
The authors basically tell the 'loving public'
what my Historical Review Library has said for
years; The British Israel Federation is allow-
ing the Chinos to steal our technology and ex-
pand into becoming the next Soviet Union that
naturally the United Nations (Rockefeller's
Bilderberg World Order front group) will want
us to have another 'Cold War' with. Naturally
the authors don't mention 'British Israel' by
name, but that's who's behind it. Publicly the
ch*nks say they want to 'bring light to the
(poor) 'dark' continent, but really they want
all the natural resources and then they will
exterminate the dark*es and take over everything!
Will Africa eventually become 'China West'? I
believe so, but read it for yourself - and weep!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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