Africa in China’s Foreign Policy

Strategy and Foreign Direct Investment

Africa and the FDI• Africa has long received the smallest

amount of inward investment. BUT, in recent years, Chinese enterprises have emerged as major investors in Africa and Latin America (like the Nicaragua canal), particularly in extraction industries where they seem to be trying to ensure future supplies of valuable raw materials.

China is the largest trading partner for the majority of African countries: investing

in mines, oil wells and infrastructure.

The negative side.The damage not only on the local population, but, above all, the environment. According to Goodall, who works in Africa since the mid of the last century, the Chinese race for African natural resources seriously affects the natural habitats of wild life. The newspaper 'International Business Times estimated that China allocated a total of $ 150 billion in the past five years, between direct investment, loans and development cooperation to African countries.

The Major recipients of Chinese investment are Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Sudan's South, Mauritania, Angola, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Zambia and South Africa.

Examples• Analysts estimate that only in Nigeria China has more than 40 major

development cooperation projects underway. To get an idea, one of these projects already launched in 2006 long-term cost estimated 5.380 million dollars and involves the construction of infrastructure "in Exchange for the preferential right" on oil auctions. Only in 2013, Beijing led 9,200 million dollars to the Nigerian energy sector.

• The 2006 investment in Mauritania from a total of 4.040 million, which meant "the exploration of oil, sewage systems, a mine of iron and highways".

• In 2013, Zambia saw $ 4 billion from China, of which 1.6 million were for mining.

• Sierra Leona China signed a series of bilateral agreements for the development of the infrastructure of the country. The agreements stipulate the construction in Sierra Leone of several power plants, a sea port and a railway line of 250 km. Also provides for the development of a mine, as well as the construction of an airport in Freetown, the capital of the country. Chinas has invested 50 billion dollars in the country’s infrastructure.

Economically it's a mutual benefit for all parties: Beijing looks satisfied your insatiable demand, while African countries create jobs and GDP increases.

The mainly concernWith all this, the biggest concern is not the legitimate business, but the fact that China is a huge market for elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns, what drives illegal hunting of these animals and has reduced its population to alarming levels. According to the number of the International Union for the conservation of nature, only in 2012 more than 15,000 elephants killed for their tusks in 27 States of the African continent and the main target of this smuggling of ivory has been China.

ConclusionSome experts have said and think the same about the actual situation with China and Africa:

"In Africa, China is doing just what settlers did. They want the raw materials for its economic growth, also that the settlers who went to Africa and is seized of its natural resources, impoverishing local people (...). China is larger and the technology improved... It's a disaster,"