Since 2000, China has actively courted Africa’s unstable and dictatorial countries with offers of aid and a refusal to back United Nations sanctions against them. Indeed, China has blithely entered into business with African countries that Europe and America refuse to engage with, owing to sanctions.
…..China has chosen a high-risk path – ignoring human rights and violating UN sanctions – to secure the energy and other resources needed to sustain its economy’s rapid growth. It is a choice that neither befits one of the permanent members of the Security Council, nor demonstrates China’s readiness to be a responsible stakeholder in the international community.
China’s willingness to arm and defend African dictators, even in the teeth of UN sanctions, as in Libya, undermines its claim to a “peaceful rise.” Given China’s Libyan duplicity, the world should now determine whether it is a country that obeys international rules only when doing so suits its interests.
via China’s African Mischief – Yuriko Koike – Project Syndicate.
It is national interests that count.
China has to diversify and its source of suppply, especially energy, there is nothing to complain about it, every country in this world will try to do the same thing.
Over the past decades, the Asian version of NATO has made China very gittery about its safety. They had been pushed to buy US treasuries for years, because American designed and created an environment that basically blocked investment from China to flow into fields of high strategic value such as oil field, and this dilema has left China with no option but to keep on buying the treasuries or go elsewhere where they can find a chance. They know it is unsafe to buy too much US treasuries, so they must diversify.
The US and other industralised nations who had been persistant to block Chinese’s investment on high value fields, are partly responsible for their own doing……
There are many dictator regimes around the world, some of them have been the good friends of the West for years.
When someone points his index finger towards others, he may not notice that the other three fingers are pointing at himself.
Double standards never convenience, but in the international political battle field, it will never end either.
Enough said?
@Jason
Just because ‘the other three fingers are pointing at himself’ doesn’t make it right to support dictatorships or mistreat our fellow human beings. Just because America is doing something, does not make it morally acceptable.
Instead of trying to capture all sources of commodities, perhaps Industrialised nations (particularly China) should put those commodities to better use, like making products that last more than five minutes and that are not designed to fail in order to generate more sales.
Enough said?
please look at the trend and not to be fooled by the media.
Years ago when Japanese tried to sell their cars to the industralised nations, what were the response from the media and consumers? What are they thinking now? Can you see the trend?
Those who can see the trend knows what is his best option, and is more likely to success?
What’s really sacarstic is that, the exported goods from China are normally of quality better than those sold in their domestic market.
Do you know how much margin they make from exporting those cheap things, and how much margins are kept by the guys behind them–the international giants that source cheap supplies from China then sell them here or elsewhere among the industralised worlld？Further and most importantly, are you aware how much polutions they have generated while manufacturing those products? Do you think it is fair for them to keep lots lots of polution inside their own contry just of producing products that they are not going to comsume, and they are only making 5% or even less profit？Do you want to swop with them so that you producce those products here, with much higher cost, generate heaps of polution, and take the risk that nobody wants your products because they are too expensive?
If “made in China” are of so poor quality, if those imported products do not provide fair value for money, why they have such a big market share? Do your comments make any economic sense?
Surely it makes lots of idological sense—–I see lots of ignorance, stubornness, besides pride and prejudice.
Anyone who knows what does “comparative advantage”mean would make no complain.
Instead of critising China, the world should instead give China appraisal and credits that it deserve–consumers in the west ripped the benefits, international giants keep their big profit share and laugh, while Chinese keep all kind of polutions and suffer from them for mane many years.
HAS ANYONE EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE ENORMOUS SACRIFICE THAT CHINESE HAVE MADE FOR CONSUMERS IN THE WEST?!!
The world economic imbance take place after the industralised nations have seen more and more comparative advanges lost in some critical sectors of their economy such as manufacturing, which used to be the power house during their economic booming era, in face of competitions from countries like Japan and China. Theorectically, every country will have to face the same music, at certain stage of its economic advancement. The US has encountered it( think about the historical glory of their automobile industry), the European have seen this happened to them, so be Aussie, Japanese， Korean， and inevitably，Chinese. Actually， it has been happening in China during the past several years—–heaps of manufacturing factories that are low invalue–adding, high in energy-consuming and polution had to wind up or relocate elsewhere such as Vietnam, Thailand or another country donn the value-adding line.
If Australia can not strengthen its competitive advantages or find new CA, sooner or later we will follow the suite of US and Europe.
This is an international arm-wrestle for economic advantage. No-one is doing anyone any favors. They are all trying to maximize their own economic gain — and minimize the (environmental) costs.
@Jason and or China in general
STOP making sacrifices for me as a western consumer, I don’t want another toaster that doesn’t work.
STOP polluting your country to make stuff that will come back to you as landfill.
STOP selling manufacturing everything to a minimum cost – what use is a cheap product that doesn’t last?
Well Jason perhaps if the evil communist regime in China was not so busy murdering its own people through the use of execution and torture we in the West might feel different about Sino expansion.
None of this is right in any moral sense but no country can claim the high ground when it comes to this. The weapons being used to kill the ‘rebels’ in Libya were sold to them by the UK and France in an attempt to shore up oil supplies.
The only reason the US weren’t in there licking Gaddafi’s backside is that they were busy creating mischief and supporting dictators in the middle east
The world is a fairly crappy place when it comes to this sort of thing
i can’t see that there is any solution which seems hopeless but it’s my view
Sounds just like the USA!