Africa News Article

Africa might be China's next imperial frontier, base...
The article starts off talking about how China has become Africa's third most important trading partner after the US and France. In 2005 alone trade grew 50 percent. Today about 30 percent of Africa's exports go to Asia. One of the main reasons is that China has secure access to the raw materials it needs to feed its economy as well as the fact that China invested billions of dollars in Africa and more is ready to be given later. They use this money to build railways, mines and manufacturing plants. Unfortunately, China has begun meddling in African affairs. During the elections that were held, China threatened that if Sata won, it would pull out its nationals and resources. The other candidate, Mwanawasa won the elections and therefore did not pull out. If they had Zambia would have lost such things as mines and manufacturing industries in Zambia. Also, there have been questions raised about safety regulations in Chinese-owned firms.

This article was very eye opening for me due to the fact that because of the extent of trade between China and Africa, China has gained much more control than it might deserve. It just goes to show that maybe money does go farther than a government ever could. Unfortunately, while the economy might be flourising, the employees in the factories and such are not.