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Africa and the 'zhing zhong' revolution
By
Silence
Chihuri
THE recent
surge in Chinese activity in Africa can barely go unnoticed, as it resembles
the fieriness reminiscent of a bout of Chinese manufactured fireworks.
Chinese expansion in Africa can be blamed or credited to African naivety, arrogance of the West in the face of real and dangerous competition, as well the exploitative nature of Chinese wheelie dealing. The Chinese have arrived at the African doorstep and could be intending to stay for good!
Any beneficial focus on the African continent should lauded, and on the same measure any revisiting of the exploitative error of the 17th and 18th centuries should be resisted rigorously. The worrying aspect of the Chinese flavour to the African continent is not necessarily the naivety if not “care less” attitude of our own leaders but rather, it is more to do with the Chinese track record in business and in governance. The question is: what is there for our already bad leaders to learn from the Chinese other than having their dictatorial and exploitative qualities perfected courtesy of Chinese tutelage?
It is not difficult at all to deduce that the Chinese are in Africa for a killing and they will not stop at anything given that their ever expanding Chinese manufacturing base needs a convenient tipping end. The whole world is now full of Chinese produce but the disturbing characteristic from an African perspective is that the worst quality goods are the only ones finding their way to Africa. When we were growing up we used hate anything labelled ‘made in China’ because we would say anything with that label resembled shoddy workmanship.
However, as our interaction with the west increased, with some of us regularly visiting, or living in some western countries, we were shocked to discover that some of the best products on sale i.e. clothes, children’s toys, etc were actually Chinese? Ten years or so ago, there was nothing really to worry about because then, Chinese goods were relatively far and between in Africa, but now with this sudden off-loading of poor quality Chinese goods on our stoop, surely there is every reason to worry. This is not accidental at all, but a very deliberate and calculated move to exploit the docile, naïve and unassuming African leadership who will do anything to advance their own minority interests at the expense of the majority of their people.
It could be reasonably argued that most Africans would have had a brush with the prudent ‘reputation’ of the Chinese, and how they never give anything for nothing, yet when it comes to taking, better known as looting, the Chinese are a ruthless lot. Talking from both African and Zimbabwean experience my country’s ordinary innocent people have already had a taste of the Chinese business flavour from where the word Zhing-Zhong was cooked up. We would all know that in Africa people buy clothes and shoes once in a while and when one does so, they would expect their prized possessions to last a good while before the next round of spoilage.
The money used to buy the items of clothing is usually hard earned and even harder to come by if one does not work, and when it takes you a life time to land that money and you spend it on something that will only last a moment, then the cycle of poverty will not be bettered but rather worsened. In short and precise terms, Chinese products are yet to benefit the African lot, and this should be viewed as an issue of urgent concern needing to be addressed before any Chinese entrepreneurs are admitted to our continent. But this could be quite difficult as long we have leaders who lack self-respect and the dignity to differentiate between fruitful investment and the exploitative nature of the Chinese opportunism in Africa.
The Chinese have to shed their reputation in Africa where they are still better known for poor gamesmanship than anything else. There is a trail of shoddy Chinese projects that have tended to be an eye sore rather a symbol of expert and artistic remembrance, and this does not endear the Chinese lot with the ordinary Africans but simply alienate them. In Harare the National Sports Stadium was built by the Chinese and was supposed to be a pride of the nation being the only and biggest stadium in the whole country, yet it has been dogged by all the attributes of a shabbily constructed facility.
The recent paltry “donation” of $5m by the Chinese towards the renovation of the stadium is obviously an insult on our already injured pride, and is a shame that we have a minister of construction who has the face to accept that kind of derisory gratuity on our behalf, and hailing it as a remarkable gesture from our Chinese benefactors. That stadium was long condemned as a health hazard and should be brought down with a new structure put in place that is in tandem with 21st century sporting, and this should be done on the Beijing account.
In Zimbabwe the Chinese are not stopping there in the shrubbery of Warren Park, but they have already encroached onto the all critical aviation industry in which their start has been nothing but a typical Chinese bout that has already left air travellers with bad taste in the mouth. The five aircraft supplied by the Chinese have turned out not only to be just another pack of zhing-zhongs, but they did not come with the requisite package of spares back-up that would normally accompany any such acquisitions.
The planes have already broken down several times within months of being acquired and surely that is not a very acceptable phenomenon given the risk that they place in the lives of the people who would dare use them. If the Chinese can con us at the highest level as happened in the aircraft deal, then what will stop them from exploiting us further down the structure. The Chinese are not philanthropists by any measure but could well do for a worse breed of imperialists dressed in communist robes carrying a huge socialist banner.
Bilateral relations between countries are supposed to espouse both economic and diplomatic facets with net benefits to both countries and their citizens. There should be strong points to be drawn from such relations and the relations have to be pursued in a manner of mutual trust, honesty, transparency, and should be purely in the national interest. In Africa where we are still very much a continent in search of the right formula and approach to governance, and general human rights issues, we could surely do with a dose of some kind of good influence that could prevail over our formative and defective democratic systems. Given the Chinese record in the area of governance and human rights and the suppressive and repressive nature of the Beijing recipe, it would be one that we would want to keep away from our environs lest it would be even worse influence on our ramshackle democracies.
The Chinese have never been known for donating to developing countries in any meaningful measure either towards nation building or any other projects, and this is in spite of building their own country on the basis of an ideology of social emancipation. Since independence, the major donors and investors to our country were western governments and organisations of western origin, and the Chinese were nowhere even further down the list.
Whatever development and advancement we are currently witnessing in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa today is not courtesy of the Chinese, yet all of a sudden its all zhing-zhong about everything. Where were the Chinese when we needed boreholes sunk, and hospitals and schools build around the rural areas of the country? The answers is simple, the Chinese were hiding and waiting for opportune moment to pounce and they seem to have found it, and only Africans can stop them form their selfish advances.
Of course like in any other bilateral relationship, there could be positives to be drawn from the interaction with Chinese, and one of them would be the expansive Chinese market. But without all necessary checks and balances nothing could stop the Chinese from even exploitation of our lot especially in the cover and comfort of their own backyard because any export will be at the mercy of the same exploitative Chinese way of business.
Any investment by the Chinese could obviously bring about economic stability but that investment must be conducted under the same scrutiny that all other investors are subjected to. It is disturbing how and why the Chinese seem to get this kind of preferential treatment from our governments, yet in terms of net returns that benefit our nation, we are yet to see what it is that the Chinese have under their Chinese collar.
Chihuri is a regular New Zimbabwe.com opinion writer. He writes from Scotland
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