A View from Liberia
As if I'd walked into a novel written by the author of Charm Offensive, here in Liberia China is a visible presence. There were ten Chinese on the plane. Then the Chinese state seal on the lapel of some of the security people at the airport. The Great Wall Hotel on the way into town. Hu Jintao recently paid Liberia its first state visit by a foreign leader in decades. A cell phone company is giving away Chinese motorcycles to ten lucky subscribers this month. The exit signs in the foreign ministry are in Chinese because the PRC has just refurbished it.
Liberian officials hope that China will take on some of the large infrastructure projects that Liberia cannot invest in because of its $3.7 billion debt. It will be several years before that debt is forgiven. But China isn't biting yet.
What does it add up to? The real external power players here remain the IFIs who are monitoring every financial move the government makes. And, yes, the U.S. government, which is training the new 2,000 man army and is the largest bilateral donor.
How well is China converting its presence into true influence in other parts of the world? In Liberia the two don't necessarily seem connected. Yet.
Comments (10)
Liberian officials hope that China will take on some of the large infrastructure projects that Liberia cannot invest in because of its $3.7 billion debt. It will be several years before that debt is forgiven. But China isn't biting yet.
What would make them bite Mauro? What is China looking for in return?
June 28, 2007 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh no! We've lost Liberia to the Chinese!
June 28, 2007 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, on the one hand it shows that at least one major player out there knows how to pursue foreign policy goals without using a gun. There's nothing particularly subtle about it. They are looking long-term, and all long-term international relationships suffer the vagaries of change even when there are contracts. But they seem to be playing it smart and the US' influence is been nibbled and gnawed at.
A relationship with someone who is predictable, reliable, uncritical, non-threatening and in it for joint benefit is probably more attractive than string-laden, moralizing, meddling, western white man condescension.
Yes, Wolfewitz and your ilk, that's you.
So the PRC might not be directly on the route to making the world a better place but, then again, the world has probably seen enough of attempts along those lines to last a generation.
And on the other hand, although the Chinese Communist Party has it all planned out into the distant future, they might suffer their own cataclysmic upheaval at some point, which might destroy their reliability factor.
June 28, 2007 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of the 3.7 billion dollars debt, the International Monetary Fund says that 1.6 billion is owed to multilateral financial institutions, including 740 million dollars to the IMF itself, 530 million dollars to the World Bank, and 255 million dollars to the African Development Bank.
A total of 358 million dollars is owed to the United States alone, whose freed slaves founded the impoverished African nation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "We will cancel that debt -- all of it." She promised to work closely with other key creditors to resolve the multilateral debt issue.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has indicated [Feb 2007] his support for cancellation, urging finance ministers from the world's richest nations to back plans to clear the country's arrears.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36551
So it appears that (1) The US (and others) loaned Liberia a pile of money (2) The US will cancel a huge debt from Liberia and the World Bank (which the US controls) will do likewise and (3) We can assume that there will be (or is) a quid-pro-quo that will not favor China, which strategy is not unknown in US foreign policy.
June 28, 2007 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh no! We've lost Liberia to the Chinese!
Well there goes the new Scalito-Roberts back to Africa colonization plan.
June 28, 2007 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
To set a very low moral bar, China is doing to Africa what the U.S. did to Central and South America.
When the history of this is all written, we'll see that China did things as bad as what the U.S. did in Chile when we tossed out Allende in favor of the war criminal Pinochet.
If we're still dominant when that history is written, we'll face it willingly and even happily. If we're not, the Pinochet that China creates will also escape punishment.
Our past actions don't justify China's present actions, by any means. But we shouldn't be surprised to find that just as we spent decades turning a neighboring region of poor countries into security clients that China is now doing the same.
thosethingswesay.blogspot.com
June 28, 2007 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
To set a very low moral bar, China is doing to Africa what the U.S. did to Central and South America.
Not even close so far, is it? There is no Chinese version of the Monroe Doctrine for Africa that I've heard of. China would have to get right to work and spend a century overthrowing governments and assassinating leaders to match us. Not saying it won't happen, but it seems a bit presumptuous to start criticizing them in advance for a history that hasn't happened yet.
June 28, 2007 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point Dan K.
But, I suspect that's where this is headed. And China's actions in Darfur and Chad are already approaching the standard we set in Central and South America. It's the old "sphere of influence" doctrine.
I dread where this is headed.
thosethingswesay.blogspot.com
June 28, 2007 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I should add that my comments on this make it seem like US meddling in Central and South America is over. It isn't. Not by a long shot.
thosethingswesay.blogspot.com
June 28, 2007 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The PRC was in Liberia back in 74-80 when I was there, as well, and had been working with Liberia on agricultural projects. It was always fun to watch them, packed into a VW micro in their Mao suits, unsmilingly navigating Liberia's deeply rutted highway into the bush.
I'm wondering if China's strategy in Africa is motivated now by their need to offset diminishing agricultural resources and inability to keep pace with domestic needs as well as to develop and expand markets for cheap products.
June 29, 2007 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink