"India and China have become Africa’s new colonialists," declared respected international financier, George Soros, during a Reuters interview earlier this year. More recently, the <i>Economist </i>ran with a cover story titled "The new colonialists", which detailed China’s huge appetite for acquiring global resources.
China’s recent announcement of a $5-billion loan to the Democratic Republic of Congo to develop national infrastructure and mining interests seems to have taken the world by surprise. International mining companies and institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank have been scrambling to find out more details of the Chinese deal that might have severe repercussions on their own activities in the country.
Yesterday started with a walk to our local expo centre — the one whose white, wave-like roofs catch my eye every time I stare out at the view from our 20th-floor balcony. Normally, a R10 taxi ride would have sufficed to get us to the expo centre in Shanghai. There is something deeply gratifying about walking to a place when you know other people, writes Julian Hewitt.
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/ 13 February 2007
”When I left South Africa, a talk by Clem Sunter titled ”China’s Game” was ringing in my ears. Clem talked about the rules of the game China is playing in its unprecedented drive to industrialise a 1,3-billion strong population. What struck me was China’s dependence on natural resources to continue its impressive growth trajectory,” writes Julian Hewitt.