Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Roundup

1. China in Africa

Global Witness wary over China, DR.Congo deal
Global Witness Tuesday criticised as opaque a $6 billion infrastructure-for-mining deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and China, saying it could not be monitored. The ambiguity of the deal, never published by the parties, made it hard to measure whether its pledges were being met, the watchdog body said, also raising concerns about some provisions. DR Congo has promised Chinese state firms up to 10 million tonnes of copper and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cobalt, it said in a statement.
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The $10 Billion For The building Of Roads, ....
Out of the 13 billion dollars agreed by China to loan Ghana for infrastructure, $10 billion is said to be pumped into the building of roads, railways, school and hospitals in Ghana. The loan deal, which was subjected to approval and now approved by the Ghanaian lawmakers, points to China's growing interest in the country which is now set to be pumping its barrels of oil since the end of last year from its offshore Jubilee field.
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China lends Angola $15 bn but creates few jobs
China has extended almost $15 billion in credit to Angola since the African oil giant's civil war, but has struggled to hire trained locals for reconstruction projects, Beijing's ambassador told AFP. China has taken a keen interest in helping the southern African country rebuild since its 27-year civil war ended in 2002, but details of deals between the two have remained opaque.
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China's hybrid millet possible solution to Africa's food shortages
A new variety of China-bred hybrid millet has yielded bumper harvests on trial plantation in some African countries, with its output at least doubling that of local millet varieties. The millet variety, dubbed ZHM, is the result of 30 years of research led by Chinese scientist Zhao Zhihai, who is lauded the "father of hybrid millet" in China. Millet is the staple food for many African countries, and experts said that if the Chinese variety of millet is popularized on the continent, it could provide a credible solution to food shortages that have long been haunting African countries.
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Ethiopian Airlines, Air China to Build Five-Star Hotel
Ethiopian Airlines is establishing a joint venture company with Hainan Air of China and China Africa Development Fund (CADF) to build five-star hotel near the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, according to the Reporter. Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian, said that the construction of the hotel was delayed due to issues related to land. “There were certain issues that need to be dealt with in connection with the land possession. But now we have finalized that process and we have secured the land ownership certificate from the Addis Ababa City Administration,” Tewolde said.
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Africa Gets $35 Billion Railways Led by China: Freight Markets
Record commodity prices are driving Africa’s biggest railway boom since the 19th century as the world’s largest untapped mineral reserves prompt miners from Brazil to China to ignore a history of war and economic chaos. China Railway Construction Corp., Vale SA, the world’s second-largest miner, and other companies are pumping at least $35 billion into rail projects over the next five years to transport cooper and coal out of Africa and into the power plants of China and India.
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More Chinese Volunteers Should Go abroad: Advisor
More Chinese should be encouraged to work as volunteers abroad so as to promote people-to-people exchanges and a better understanding of China, a political advisor said Thursday. They can play a crucial role in "explaining China to world people," particularly when the country's rapid rise attracts worldwide attentions while meeting with "a variety of complicated reactions," said Zhao Qizheng. Zhao heads the Committee for Foreign Affairs under the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, the top political advisory body that is holding an annual session in Beijing. He said Chinese aid to other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America should focus more on people-to-people exchanges, in addition to assistance in infrastructures.
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China's education charity program goes abroad as 1st aided school starts construction in Tanzania
Construction has begun on a primary school in Tanzania with the aid of China's Hope Project, an educational charity program that has benefited millions of poverty-stricken students at home. A ceremony was held to lay the school's foundation in Msoga village of Bagamoyo in Tanzania on Wednesday, said the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF), which launched the program in 1989, in a Thursday statement. The school was the first example for China's Hope Project to go abroad, providing help to African countries in need of improving educational infrastructure, said Tu Meng, the secretary-general of CYDF.
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2. India in Africa

India, South Africa set to exceed $10 bn trade target
India and South Africa, non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, have vowed to step up coordination to speed up reform of the global body as they surpass $10 billion bilateral trade much before the 2012 deadline. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna held wide-ranging talks with his South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane Monday and discussed a host of bilateral issues, including trade and investment, security cooperation and the UN reforms. Both sides expressed satisfaction that the target set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Jacob Zuma during his visit to India in June last year of bilateral trade of $10 billion by the year 2012 is likely to be achieved in the current financial year 2010-11, a joint statement issued at the end of the ministerial meeting said Tuesday.
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India's Essar to invest $750 mln in Zimbabwe's Zisco
India's Essar Africa will inject an initial $750 million to retart production at Zimbabwe's state steel firm Zisco, Zimbabwe's industry minister said on Wednesday.
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Will be 'honoured' to welcome India as OECD member: Gurria
Appreciating the country's overall efforts, OECD chief Angel Gurria has said the 34-nation grouping would be "very honoured" to welcome India as a member. "We want to work closer with Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa (BIICS). If any of them decides that they want to join the OECD, we would be very honoured to start the process," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria told PTI in an interview.
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3. In Other Emerging Powers News

EU/India trade pact threatens AIDS treatment in Africa - TAC & Co.
SECTION27, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) South Africa voice support for their partners across the world opposing provisions in a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) that threaten the sustainable supply of affordable medicines to millions of people in the developing world. On 2 March 2011, thousands of people from across Asia - joined by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health - marched in New Delhi to demand that provisions in the draft FTA, requiring India to adopt stricter protection on intellectual property than required by international trade law, are dropped. These provisions - if adopted - would restrict access to currently produced generic drugs and make it more difficult for new generic drugs to be made.
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AfDB Sets Up New Trust Fund with Brazil
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved on Wednesday, 9 March 2011 in Tunis, a USD 6-million untied grant with the Federative Republic of Brazil, to promote South-South Cooperation between African countries. The Fund will be managed by the Bank’s Partnerships and Cooperation Unit.
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Brazil Sets Up New Roadblocks for Agricultural Investments – Especially from China
Record-high food prices are driving new economic pressures — beyond the obvious surge in costs to consumers. In Brazil, for example, officials look set to introduce new rules on foreign government-backed investments in farmland, a move that would extend sweeping foreign-ownership restrictions adopted last year. While there is some talk that Brazil could scale back slightly some of the very strict new rules, officials there appear highly concerned about who controls the country’s natural resources, and it is understood that much of the worry centers on the Chinese.
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South Africa: Initiative launched in SA to give greater voice to developing countries
A major new initiative aimed at providing a greater voice for developing country democracies in global debates was launched in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The initiative comprises a consortium of leading think tanks from India, Brazil and South Africa: the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) from India; the Instituto Fernando Henrique Cardoso (iFHC) from Brazil; and the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) from South Africa. The launch was attended by the heads of all three think tanks as well as prominent development experts from these and other countries.
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IBSA Together in Resisting No-fly Zone
A joint communiqué issued Tuesday at the end of the two-day seventh trilateral commission declared that a "no-fly zone zone on the Libyan air space or any coercive measures additional to those foreseen in Resolution 1970 can only legitimately be contemplated in full compliance with the U.N. Charter and with the Security Council of the United Nations."
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IBSA agenda: UNSC reforms, terror fight
Foreign Ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) — the three non-permanent members of the UN Security Council — on Tuesday met in New Delhi and issued a declaration after the meeting saying, “The ministers, attentive to the present political unrest in several Middle Eastern and northern African countries, stressed their expectation that the changes sweeping the region follow a peaceful course. They expressed their confidence in a positive outcome in harmony with the aspirations of the peoples.” Participating in the seventh Trilateral Commission meeting, Foreign Ministers S M Krishna, Antonio Patriota (Brazil) and Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (South Africa) reiterated their commitment to multilateralism and reaffirmed the need for the UN to become more responsive to the priorities of developing countries.
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Renewed calls for UNSC reform
South Africa's International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, has once again called for a speedy reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to allow for permanent representation of developing nations in the council. The United Nations General Assembly elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the UNSC for two-year terms starting on 1 January 2011. However, both South Africa and India have been pushing for expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories of the UN Security Council as part of its reform, and are hoping these reforms would take shape in the next two years.
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SA aims for free-trade zone for Africa
The possibility of a free-trade zone stretching from the Cape to Cairo would probably be tabled in South Africa by mid-year, according to Trade & Industry Minister Rob Davies. On Tuesday, at international consultancy Global Pacific & Partners’ fifth Africa Economic Forum in Cape Town, he said that the South African government wanted to highlight the importance of such a immense free-trade zone at the next Southern African Development Community (SADC) conference.
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Africa following SA lead on genetically modified crops
After decades of resisting genetically modified crops, African nations are joining SA in researching and planting biotech crops to ensure food security, according to an industry report released last week. A study shows that the fear of genetically modified crops creating super pests and super weeds down the line is not stopping African states from allowing producers of genetically modified seeds to conduct scientific experiments and field trials to assess their potential effects on biodiversity.
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China gives environmental nod to Sasol CTL project
China granted initial environmental approval to an $8,8-billion project by South African petrochemical firm Sasol and China's top coal producer Shenhua Group to turn coal into fuels. The environmental clearence put the project, potentially one of the largest foreign investments in China, a step closer to final approval from the top economic steering body, the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC), after nearly a decade of talks between the two companies.
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China, Russia Lead UN Bid to Stabilize Somalia, Combat Piracy
China and Russia are leading a new effort at the United Nations to curb the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia and defeat al-Qaeda-linked terrorists fighting to seize control of the Horn of Africa nation. Russia has circulated a draft resolution that would commit the UN Security Council to “urgently” begin talks on creation of three courts for piracy cases. The measure also would urge construction of two prisons for convicted pirates, and demand that all nations enact laws to criminalize piracy.
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Japanese, S. Korean companies team up to take on Chinese rivals
Although the rivalry between Japanese and South Korean companies has intensified, they are increasingly cooperating in ventures abroad to prevent Chinese competitors from getting too far ahead. Tokyo and Seoul are also providing support to such ventures in terms of official development assistance and investment. The similar industrial structures of Japan and South Korea mean many companies are seeking the same energy and natural resources that are also being aggressively pursued by companies from China.
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Only 6 Percent Happy, Survey Finds
Only 6 percent of Chinese people see themselves as happy, despite the government's efforts to improve the population's sense of happiness, a survey showed on Wednesday. The proportion was in stark contrast to Denmark, which topped another recent poll. There, 82 percent described themselves as happy in a sampling carried out by Gallup World Poll. That poll ranked China 125th in a table of worldwide happiness.
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China crackdown: A tweak of the tiger's tail
All it took was a single tweet to send the Chinese government into panic last Sunday. The tweet, originating in the US, publicised a call posted on the US-based website Boxun for Chinese citizens to assemble in cities across the country to start a jasmine revolution, inspired by events in the Middle East.
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China's Key Aim is Taming Prices as Wen Vows to Narrow Widening Wealth Gap
China will target inflation as the top economic priority this year and narrow the gap between rich and poor as the government seeks to maintain social stability, Premier Wen Jiabao told lawmakers in Beijing. “We cannot allow price rises to affect the normal lives of low-income people,” Wen said in his state-of-the-nation report to the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress yesterday. “We will reverse the trend of a widening income gap as soon as possible.”
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China Reportedly Plans Strict Goals to Save Energy
With oil prices at their highest level in more than two years because of unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, the Chinese government plans to announce strict five-year goals for energy conservation in the next two weeks, China energy specialists said Friday. Bejing’s emphasis on saving energy reflects concerns about national security and the effects of high fuel costs on inflation, China’s export competitiveness and the country’s pollution problems.
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4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Grassroots Protests Against Chinese Dams in Africa
On a day when people took to the streets in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, dam-affected people organized protests against destructive dams at the Chinese embassies in Kenya and Sudan. Among them was our friend Ikal Angelei. Her efforts illustrate the changing face of international grassroots struggles. Ikal lives on the shores of Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake in Northern Kenya. Like 500,000 other indigenous people, Ikal’s family is threatened by the construction of the Gibe III Dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia. If built, the dam would destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Lower Omo Valley and the Lake Turkana region.
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China gives Africa hope
Africa has a significant proportion of the world’s developing countries that are in need of appropriate policies and strategies aimed at stimulating sustainable economic growth and development and reducing poverty. Although Africa has made commendable progress in meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), more work needs to be done to ensure that it meets the MDGs by the target date of 2015. Africa stands to learn from China’s experience in attaining high economic growth performance and in significantly reducing poverty among its populace.
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It’s business as usual for Indian oil companies with strife-torn Libya
State-run oil companies in the country continue to do business with Libya as there is no clear directive from the government on importing oil from the trouble-torn north-African country. While global oil majors and Wall Street banks have stopped trading crude with the world’s 12th largest oil exporter, Indian companies continue to unwittingly aid Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by contributing to his main source of revenue.
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Libyan strife exposes China's risks in global quest for oil
In all, China has evacuated an estimated 36,000 of its workers from war-torn Libya, chartering buses, sending jetliners, even dispatching its navy to escort civilian rescue vessels. Beijing state-controlled media have trumpeted the effort as a sign of China's strength. But China's deep involvement with the North African dictatorship has also exposed a vulnerability in the world's second-largest economy.
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North Africa unrest hits Chinese investments hard
Unrest in Egypt and Libya has hit China hard as state-owned enterprises had heavily invested in these regions as part of the government's "going out" policy. The policy, a result of increasing trade disputes with western countries, encourages Chinese companies to invest abroad to lower the country's dependence upon manufacturing and exports. However, with western countries earlier carving out their place in the more stable markets of East Asia and Australia after the second world war, the late start of China's economic reform period beginning in 1979 has led to the country's overseas investment focusing on Africa and Latin America.
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Unrest rattles China's Africa policy
China has no immediate reason to fear the popular political upheaval rapidly spreading across the Middle East and northern Africa - the so-called "Jasmine" revolutions that have ousted leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, forced Libyan strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to the brink and threatens regimes in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and beyond. But, if Chinese leaders are smart, this viral regional turmoil should cause them to rethink, immediately, their commercial ventures in Africa. As Beijing cracks down, with its reflexive intolerance, on the relative handful of protesters in China who dream of turning "Jasmine" into another "Tiananmen", as in the pro-democracy protests in 1989, a number of other African regimes in which China is heavily invested also teeter on the edge of chaos. Think Zimbabwe, Sudan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo - and then keep thinking.
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Arab Revolt reworks the world order: how the new actors will behave
India, Brazil and South Africa have put a spoke in the American wheel, which seemed up until Tuesday inexorably moving, turning and turning in the direction of imposing a "no-fly" zone over Libya. Arguably, the United States can still impose a zone, but then President Barack Obama will have to drink from the poisoned chalice and resurrect his predecessor's controversial post-Cold War doctrine of "unilateralism" and the "coalition of the willing" to do that. If he does so, Obama will have no place to hide and all he has done in his presidency to neutralize America's image as a "bully" will come unstuck.
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China and the Egyptian rising
The phenomenon of massive demonstrations uniting a huge public around the aspiration to change a country’s leadership and renovate the governing system is at the centre of the remarkable uprisings in much of the Arab world in the first months of 2011. The successful overthrow of presidents in Tunisia and Egypt are their early fruits, but the process of democratic change is clearly unfinished and has at least the potential to go far wider. Even a cursory knowledge of modern Chinese history suggests that the gathering of thousands of students in Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing in May-June 1989 has some parallels with the Arab revolts.
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Election funds? Try Hong Kong
The transitional regime led by Andry Rajoelina is threatening to cancel oil exploration licences held by Western investors and hand them to the Hong Kong-based China International Fund. Rajoelina, who seized power with army support in March 2009, needs money to fight presidential elections due in mid-year, which are shaping up to be a bitter confrontation with desposed President Marc Ravalomanana and several other candidates.
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Chinese ‘aid’ in Africa
China’s increased engagement with Africa has excited much concern, mainly from those powers that have held long-standing positions of authority over Africa. They tend to posit crude geopolitical standpoints that impede critical, empirically-informed analysis. Yet, our field study of Angola and Ghana found contrasting political ramifications.
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