Only one African country, Mauritius, has a comprehensive free-trade deal with China
in Fungurume, a mining town in Congo, men caked in dust spit peanut shells onto the floor. Inside, where Chinese New Year lanterns hang from the walls, Emmanuel explains how things changed after 2016, when a majority stake in the Tengwe Fungurume Mine was sold by an American firm to China Molybdenum. He says the new owners tried to cut his salary and used subcontractors who recruit day labourers and eschew safety protocols. He says staff racially abused and hit Congolese workers.
Yet though Chinese mining in Congo is part of the story of Chinese business in Africa, it is not the only part. The extent of Chinese business interests has deepened and broadened in the past two decades. Some governments, like Congo’s, fail to use the relationship to deliver benefits to ordinary people, but others do a better job. Viewed as a whole, China’s business links reflect patterns of globalisation, not a new colonialism.
Roughly a third of Chinese firms are in manufacturing. McKinsey estimates that 12% of Africa’s industrial production is accounted for by Chinese companies. Some manufacturers use Africa as a base for exports, raising hopes of African leaders who believe that, as Asians get richer, Africa will lure more labour-intensive factories. But power, labour and logistics are generally too expensive in Africa. Chinese manufacturers tend to serve mostly local markets, rather than export.
Much depends on African governments. In Benin, notes a paper in April by Folashade Soule of Oxford University, officials diligently negotiated a commercial centre for Chinese and local firms to ensure that its laws had primacy and that Chinese firms used the centre for wholesale but not retail selling, protecting local traders.
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