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To: BubbaFred who wrote (59096)	1/18/2005 9:21:35 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Barnawa, my area, is surrounded by textiles factory and the chinese are my neighbors. The girl supermarket manager is chinese, and she looks cute too! Bubba while ht epopular press is seeing china seeking oil and raw materials wherever they go, I see china seeking market for their products to diversify from the major markets. I will check before the end of the day and write.

To: BubbaFred who wrote (59096)	1/18/2005 9:30:17 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

China's business links with Africa A new scramble Nov 25th 2004 \| JOHANNESBURG From The Economist print edition Booming Chinese interest in Africa is not just about oil TRADE with Asia is up, its investors flock to Africa's oil wells, its businessmen agree cosy ties with African ministers. For Asia, read, above all, China. Local analysts of African business are in a frenzy about the new wind from the East. At a recent oil and gas conference in Cape Town, speakers lined up to describe the rush. One produced a map of Africa, highlighting new Asian oil interests: it was a forest of Chinese flags. Asia now takes about 13% of African exports. A China-Africa Business Council formed this month in Beijing reckons that two-way trade was some $18 billion last year, a nine-fold increase on 1999. Chinese officials expect it to grow to $30 billion within two years. Chinese investment in Africa still lags that from America and Britain. But a recent World Bank study records its “astonishing” growth in the four years to 2002. More is on the way. “Within five years, China could be one of the top three investors on the continent,” says Iraj Abedian, an independent economist. Oil is currently the big draw. Unlike their increasingly publicity-sensitive western rivals, the Chinese have no qualms about making deals with oil-rich dictators, however corrupt or nasty. State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, eager for secure long-term supplies, has bought 40% of a large project in Sudan. Chinese workers recently built a 1,600km pipeline there, in just 11 months. Chinese firms—as well as Indian ones—moved into Sudan after American investors left (the United States applies sanctions to Sudan, which it now accuses of genocide). Other westerners also hold back, fearing the bad publicity that forced Talisman, a Canadian oil firm, to quit a few years ago. But a Chinese trade spokesman said of Sudan in September, “We import from every source we can get oil from.” It is a similar story elsewhere. Western oil firms fear that deals with famously venal rulers, as in Angola, will come under ever-closer scrutiny: for example, under an “extractive industries initiative” pushed by Britain last year to encourage more openness. Firms from China face no such restraints. In March its government dished out a $2 billion soft loan to Angola, in exchange for 10,000 barrels a day of oil. Over the past year some very senior Chinese politicians have toured other oil-rich countries, such as Gabon and Nigeria, cooking up similarly close ties. Peter Draper, a trade expert at the South African Institute of International Affairs, calls it China's “ethical advantage” over rivals. Oil is not alone. Chinese firms reportedly have spent some $100m in the past two years in Zambia's once-decrepit copper industry. South Africa's exports to China have more than doubled in five years, and increasingly they are raw materials such as coal and gold, not manufactures. Minerals probably drive China's friendship with Zimbabwe. A $200m deal to supply fighter jets and other military goods was reported earlier this year. Zimbabwe also promotes tourism from China and twice-weekly direct flights from its capital, Harare, to Beijing, are about to take off. Several state contracts were struck recently with Chinese firms. Much of Zimbabwe's shrinking tobacco crop is now sold to China. If western mining companies are eventually squeezed out, the Chinese will be well placed to move in. China has now struck trade deals with 40 African countries—many without mineral riches. Construction and telecoms deals are widespread: Huawei, a Chinese telecoms firm, said last week that it had won contracts worth $400m to service mobile-phone networks in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Chinese contractors are said to be ready to work on a $600m hydroelectric plant at Kafue Gorge, in southern Zambia. Chinese agricultural firms tend land in Zambia too. Others are active in hotel, road and other big construction, notably in Botswana and South Africa. Chinese firms use factories in Africa to stitch garments that can go duty-free into the United States. And Africa's imports of Chinese manufactures are rising fast. South Africa's trade unions recently complained that domestic industry was being flattened by cheap imports of hi-tech goods, computers, telecoms equipment and the like. China's interest in Africa goes beyond grabbing supplies of black gold; it will be sustained for a long time yet

To: BubbaFred who wrote (59096)	1/18/2005 9:32:23 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

China and Africa Forget Mao, let's do business Feb 5th 2004 \| KIGALI From The Economist print edition Ideology has gone. Business is what the Chinese care about in Africa BUSINESSLIKE is how the Chinese like to look, these days, in Africa. On January 31st, China's oil-refining boss signed a deal to buy crude from Gabon. Next day, President Hu Jintao arrived, heralding a new era in Sino-African co-operation. No proclamations of Third World solidarity, no lambasting of American imperialism, certainly no lauding of democracy. Just business “with no political conditions”, as Mr Hu put it to Gabon's parliament. Africa has bountiful natural riches; China has bottomless demand. A perfect match. Over the past few years, China has returned in earnest in Africa. Before he left his post last autumn as America's main man for Africa, Walter Kansteiner asked his 40-odd ambassadors if they had noticed a marked rise in Chinese involvement in the continent. Half said yes. China has recently built government buildings in Gabon's capital, Libreville, an airport terminal in Algeria, a communications network in Ethiopia. It has built a road in the smartest bit of Kigali, Rwanda's capital, as well as a new ministry of foreign affairs and a convention centre. Under the UN's auspices, Chinese peacekeepers are in Congo and Liberia. And Chinese businessmen are increasingly visible in a host of activities, including timber, engineering and textiles. Official Chinese statistics suggest that trade with Africa, though still meagre compared with other parts of the world, has been rising for several years. Worth $12.4 billion in 2002, two-way trade probably grew last year by a half. Development aid, widely spread, amounted to $1.8 billion in 2002. The stock of Chinese investment in Africa is probably about $1 billion. Attitudes have changed sharply since the 1970s, when ideology was proclaimed as the chief motive for trade. The great symbol then was the Chinese-built railway between Tanzania and Zambia. But by the 1990s, China's interest in the continent had all but fizzled. Now, though always keen for Africans to back China's claim to Taiwan, the motives are bluntly commercial. China has displaced Japan as African oil's second biggest importer after the United States. Demand for it is rising relentlessly. As well as Gabon, Mr Hu visited Algeria and Egypt, which also supply China with oil. In a telling sign of the times, for a brief spell last year China was buying more Angolan crude than the Americans.

To: BubbaFred who wrote (59096)	1/18/2005 9:43:41 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

<often feels neglected by the rest of the world, Africa can at least be grateful for the long-running rivalry between Taiwan and China.> Taiwan and China How happy to be with either Apr 30th 1998 \| BEIJING From The Economist print edition THOUGH it often feels neglected by the rest of the world, Africa can at least be grateful for the long-running rivalry between Taiwan and China. As a battleground in the two countries’ diplomatic war, Africa has received copious amounts of attention, and tribute. Guinea-Bissau, an unassuming minnow in West Africa, must feel pleasantly flattered that its decision to switch ties from Taiwan was described in Chinese newspapers last week as “a major event” and “a milestone”. The state-run papers did not say just what it was that lured Guinea-Bissau into the arms of another. Zhu Rongji, the Chinese prime minister, spoke only of the “vast potential for economic and trade co-operation” between China and its small but desirable partner. Taiwan, which has lavished gifts on Guinea-Bissau for the past eight years, is understandably aggrieved that it has returned to its old lover. “Some countries cannot appreciate our goodwill,” said Taiwan’s foreign minister, Jason Hu, with some irritation. Taiwan and China accuse each other of engaging in the most cynical form of dollar diplomacy, and both are right. Each side has offered cheap loans and material aid to the Africans. Both have sent teams to do medical and social work in needy areas. Large amounts of cash have been paid directly to some African leaders rather than to their governments. With such largesse on offer, it can become difficult for some African countries to make up their mind. Like Guinea-Bissau, Niger was China’s but jumped to Taiwan in 1992, then reverted to China in 1996. At the moment, China appears to be doing the better. Guinea-Bissau is the third African country this year to abandon Taiwan. The Central African Republic switched in January after, according to Taiwan, its request for a $120m loan was turned down. Far more serious was Taiwan’s loss of South Africa. President Nelson Mandela agonised publicly about the “morality” of the move to China, with its big market for South African products and its permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Taiwan had generously supported his African National Congress when it was in opposition, and he had hoped to be able to recognise both China and Taiwan. China, however, said no. Ever since South Africa’s switch, African diplomats have been waiting for others to follow. Malawi could be next. Taiwan still says its ties there are firm, but Malawi recently sent a team of officials to Beijing. China has offered aid for regional energy, water and transport projects to the Southern African Development Community, but has pointedly said that implementation of the deal would be difficult while two of the community’s members, Malawi and Swaziland, continued to recognise Taiwan. Taiwan is now left with only 27 diplomatic allies. Some Pacific island-states have stayed loyal, and Taiwan’s ties with the Caribbean and Central America remain strong. Taiwanese diplomats travelling to the Caribbean have the happy habit of stopping over in the United States, a practice that causes some irritation to China.

To: BubbaFred who wrote (59096)	1/18/2005 11:05:44 AM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 74559

China has had major presence in Africa ever since 1950s (I can name at least a dozen major projects across Africa which were built with major aid from China), the aid was reduced for a decade or so during 80s and early 90s. Chinese are very welcomed in many African countries. Some of major universities in Libya, for example, have Chinese as their required class, and many students there can speak Chinese. Several weeks ago, in the Ivory Coast, French and Europeans got looted in local riot, they left Chinese shops alone.