China--Africa's new colonial power

Telegraph:

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Full scale work by the Chinese begins to rebuild 2,050 miles of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, left to rot in the rainforest after the Belgian colonialists pulled out 48 years ago and further shattered by seven years of war.

The vast project, which will triple Congo's current paved road network, is part of China's largest investment in Africa, a £4.5 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal signed in January.

As well as the roads, Beijing has promised to repair 2,000 miles of largely defunct railways, build 32 hospitals and 145 health centres, install two electricity distribution networks, construct two hydropower dams and two new airports.

In return, China has won the rights to five copper and cobalt mines in Congo's southern minerals belt which boasts some of the world's richest ore deposits.

The deal has confirmed Beijing as Congo's largest foreign investor and extended its dominance over swathes of Africa previously allied to the West.

Britain has increased its aid to Congo sixfold since 2002, and is now one of the country's leading bilateral donors, but analysts in the capital Kinshasa said that "the Europeans are now largely playing catch up to the Chinese, and they are unlikely ever to succeed".

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Victor Kasongo, Congo's deputy minister of mines, said: "To be honest, China was Plan B.

"We first approached the Europeans but they said they did not have the muscle to do what we needed.

"China has stepped into that opening, very quickly."

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Patricia Feeney, director of the British organisation Rights and Accountability in Development, said: "If you start to unpick the deal, you find the Chinese are setting conditions which are much stricter and which are going to be more difficult to meet."

Congo's government has been forced to include loan guarantees in the deal. If the mineral deposits are lower than estimated or more difficult to extract, it will need to borrow more to keep up its repayments.

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Another advantage for the Chinese is its amoral leadership will tolerate the incompetence and amoral conduct of African leaders. Sudan and Zimbabwe are obvious examples where they not only tolerate despots, but provide the instruments for their genocidal conduct.