Finally, signs that aggressive Chinese investment is beginning to step on African toes, from today’s Wall Street Journal. “In Africa, China’s Expansion Begins to Stir Resentment” (sub required) details how Hu Jintao canceled a stop in Chambishi, Zambia partly because Chinese supervisors at a Chinese-owned mine—there’s no polite way to say this—fired on protesting employees in 2006.
Set amid rolling hills in Zambia’s copper belt, Chambishi was supposed to be a showcase of Sino-African friendship. China’s state metals conglomerate, China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., bought the mothballed copper mine here in 1998, bringing plenty of jobs and investments. Initial gratitude, however, quickly turned into seething discontent, as the new Chinese owners banned union activity and cut corners on safety. In 2005, dozens of locals were killed in a blast at the Chinese explosives facility serving the mine—the worst industrial disaster in Zambia’s history. Then, the following year, protesting Zambian employees were sprayed with gunfire. “The Chinese, they don’t even consider us to be human beings,” complains Albert Mwanaumo, a former Chambishi miner who says he was shot by a Chinese supervisor. “They think they have the right to rule us.”
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South African President Thabo Mbeki has repeatedly cautioned in recent weeks that China risks replicating in Africa a “colonial relationship” of the kind that existed under white rule.
China, the colonial power! Since China spent the past half-century screaming about American “imperialism,” it’s refreshing to see Beijing run into the same complaint.
