You guys realize that the USA and Europe have been doing this for the last 100 years. We still do this everywhere. Diamonds and Copper in Africa, Oil in Venezuela etc This is how it works Very poor country with President Multinational company gives bribe to President ( say $1M, which is nothing for a company, but is about $950,000 more than the President has) President signs development deal with company Development deal gives all mining rights to the company, in exchange the company gives the country 10% of profits and agrees to spend 10% on infrastructure President brags about the great deal... free infrastructure, jobs created to build that infrastucture etc etc A year later, the jobs are done, and the ´infrastructure´ is roads that go from the mines to the ports and really benefit nobody else. Every ounce of oil produced in Venezuala, and every diamond and pound of copper mined in Africa... the vast majority of the profits go to USA or European companies... it has been that way for decades. Multinational companies have obscene amounts of money compared to the political leaders in those poor countries and most of those countries have no media or way to challenge any development contracts signed by their president. Here is what is changing... The US Government has started prosecuting US companies that bribe foreign political leaders.... this has opened the door for China to fill that void. The justice department is wrong... they think that if they prevent US companies from bribine political leaders in Africa, it will somehow help Africa grow and prosper, since they will theoretically have more of their own natural resources to sell.. but the reality is, the political leaders of those countries do not want to grow their own countries as much as they want to get the bribes, which are now coming from China instead of the US. One of the reasons Venezuela is having so much trouble right now is because Chavez ( and now Madura) are both economic idiots. They took over the oil industry, had no clue how to run it, and then just took bribes and then got abused by big oil companies from the USA and UK who are now the ones making almost all the profits from Venezuelan oil.
Chavez nationalized the oil industry years ago, and cost the big companies who had interests over there a great deal of money. I lost money on investments in a couple of those companies. Chavez supposedly died worth at least a billion - while the people of the country faced poverty, stagflation, etc. I think he probably knew what he was doing - I doubt he gave a shit about the poor in his country and saw opportunity to line his own pockets. Besides generally being ignorant (or dishonest) about economics, I don't think socialists, dictators, and communists who come into power like Chavez, Castro, Putin, et al care much about economics beyond stuffing their own coffers. And these guys in oil-rich countries generally owe it entirely to us evil capitalist pigs who go over and pull the oil out of the ground (they likely had neither the know-how or means to pull out themselves) and pay them a nice royalty with no risk to them. It's just like the socialists / limousine liberals here calling for everyone to be "patriotic" and pay more taxes while they do anything and everything they can to cut their own as close to zero as possible. Of course these days they may just be pressured into singing those empty hymns to stay off the current big govt shit list.
Well, honestly I would much rather that China got involved with Africa rather than groups like ISIS and other islamic terrorists. I have read MANY articles which discuss how terrorists have been butchering their way across Northern Africa and I doubt they plan to stop there. They will probably plan to proceed to South Africa unless someone stops them. China may not be the best country in the world, but they would definitely be strong enough to hold off islam from taking over and in the process they might be able to offer a lot of opportunity to African citizens and a way for Africa to drag its' way out of terrible poverty. Heaven knows, they need somebody to help them because they are weak and topple over pretty easily.
The Chinese know that corrupt African leaders will allow them to "invest" in exchange for natural resources, land, etc, etc. I wouldn't say the Chinese are guilty of exploiting the locals. It's their leaders who are responsible for the state of affairs. But then again, they have to choose between China and those who colonized them. Instead of embracing the old adage, better the devil you know . . . they run after this new "angel." It might end in colonialism or something akin to it. It's only a matter of time. How will they do it? Ignite civil wars. Arm all warring groups then they'll send in their troops to protect their investments, act as peace-keepers . . . that kind of stuff.
Petesede pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's not colonialism, it's simple bribery. Give the decision makes some cash and they will sign pretty much any contract you want them to sign. This is how Africa worked in the past, it's how it works now and it's probably how it will work 30 years in the future. There is very little done to prevent corruption and the good old US dollar rules over there. From an ordinary person's point of view it's getting much better in the bigger (read: richer) cities but I'm sure that bribery is still a 100% effective tactic at the higher levels where the numbers after the $-sign are big enough.
The big difference is who is doing it. For the last 100 years it has been the USA and Europe.. but social justice warriors within the USA are demanding that US companies stop bribing oversseas gov´t officials Also, if any of you actually read the wiki-leaks stuff from a few years ago, you would be amazed how how involved our embassies are at setting up these deals. One of the biggest fuctions of embassies is to find ´decision makers´ who can be influenced or bought by our big corporations into taking these types of bribes. In most cases, the leaders of those countries go fishing to the embassy. So, I guess for the OP... this is not shocking or new, this is business as usual for the past century.
I agree with the thought that it is opportunism rather than anything else. They saw a good deal, they went for it. I see how Africa could benefit from this though, they need the infrastructure, it could help eliminate some of the problems in some of the areas, as long as it goes where it is supposed to instead of being s******d off and hoarded like supplies usually are, sadly.
@crimsonghost747. There's probably a lot of truth in your comments. Well, what China doesn't realize if they decide to take the bribery path, is that it will probably start a bunch of wars in Africa that will NEVER be finished with before another one starts. You know, just like the middle east. I read an article that Nixon decided to make a deal with the Sauds because of their oil of course, but also because he sensed that they were "easily corruptible". In other words, he made a deal with the devil for energy and the petrodollar and we've been paying for that mistake with blood and treasure ever since. It's unfortunate that leaders cannot see that having a moral compass and saying "NO" to corruption is the best route to go. I would never do a business deal with someone I thought was less than reputable. It's just asking for trouble.
Big difference for the companies in the west and the Chinese too, but barely any difference for the Africans. Or regular joes anywhere, as far as I can tell. User911. Yes bribery always comes with issues but that is how things are done in Africa. Before it was the USA and Europe, now it's starting to be Asia. Won't change much for Africa. And there IS no way to do business without bribery there, since it's the one with bribes who gets the contracts. Simple as that. Most of the continent is very corrupt so that has to be taken into account when doing business there.
Bribery is everywhere and the Chinese are not in Africa to make them them rich, but to generate wealth to themselves. How do they do it? Just the regular way, using all means at their disposal.
