Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Round-Up

1. General

Land grab fears for Ethiopian rural communities
The government of Meles Zenawi is pioneering the lease of some three million hectares of land over the next five years, an area the size of Belgium. The policy is targeting massive lowland areas mostly in the west and south-west of the country. These are regions populated by smaller minority ethnic groups. The government denies conducting any repression, and says instead that its policy is aimed at lifting local people out of poverty. Foreign investors in Gambella include Chinese, Indian and Saudi firms. The Saudis alone say they are hoping to produce as much as a million tonnes of rice per year, most of it for their own domestic market. Birhani Fasaha, director of the Saudi Star Corporation, says the country's planned investment in Ethiopia, as well as in a range of other African countries, is a response to Saudi Arabian fears about their own domestic food supply, following sharp rises in global food prices two years ago.
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US urged to ramp up rare earths
A US government report on Wednesday called for urgent action to secure rare earth products at home and abroad, warning that the United States otherwise risked ceding the clean energy boom to China. China produces more than 95 percent of the world's rare earths -- the elements, generally mined, that are crucial in products ranging from iPods to low-emission cars to turbines for wind power. An Energy Department study predicted a "substantial increase" in demand for rare earths as more countries embrace clean technology, even though the United States has limited supply options. "Left unaddressed, this reality will severely hamper the United States' ability to transition to a clean energy economy," said the report, drafted by the Energy Department over the past year.
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China Opens New Markets for Asian Economies
In response to growing labour costs, China is increasingly turning to its neighbours to supply what it once produced locally - raw materials and intermediate goods, such as machine components and parts - to retain its international reputation as the ‘factory to the world’. "With no strong growth in demand from the developed markets, the prescription for Asia is to stoke its own consumption," Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told IPS. "China will be a huge part of that, with its growth, both overall and in the consumer market."
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2. China in Africa

China to send observers for South Sudan referendum
China says it is sending a delegation to southern Sudan to observe an independence referendum. China’s interest in Africa’s largest country is high and it has been seeking strong relations with officials in both Sudan’s north and south ahead of the vote on Sunday. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer. Sudan’s oil-rich mainly Christian south is widely expected to choose independence from the mainly Muslim north. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China hopes the vote will be held in a “fair, free, transparent and peaceful atmosphere and that all parties involved should be committed to peace and stability in Sudan.”
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Cameroon takes $743 mln China loan for water project
Cameroon secured a 366 billion CFA franc loan from the Export-Import Bank of China to fund a water distribution project, the government said on Wednesday. The programme will reach 2 million people in the capital city Yaounde and villages along the pipeline, marking a significant infrastructure boost for the central African state in which the United Nations says only half the 19.5 million population have access to clean water. The project should begin in January, Water and Energy Minister Michael Tomdio said on state radio.
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Mali wins $210 mln infrastructure loan from China
West African cotton producer Mali has secured 103.2 billion CFA francs ($210 million) in loans from China to finance road, bridge and telecoms projects, the government said. China has signed a slew of loan deals across Africa in the last few years as it seeks to secure resources to fuel its own dramatic growth. The terms of the loans to Mali were not disclosed.
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Chinese road builder warned over delays
Sinohydro Ltd., a Chinese company constructing the 65.1-kilometre-long Singida-Katesh road to tarmac level has been directed to complete the work according to the terms of the contract or else it should forget about being given construction jobs in the future. Works Minister Dr John Magufuli sounded the warning at the weekend during an audience with staff members of his ministry in Singida Region. He expressed dissatisfaction with the pace at which the road was being constructed by the foreign company, particularly the use of poor and outdated construction equipment. The Singida-Katesh road is scheduled to be completed in September this year, and so far only 51 kilometres had been built.
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Chinese prostitutes resist rescue from Africa
The Chinese government has said its efforts to rescue prostitutes prying their trade on the African continent are proving hard. Eleven Chinese women ruled into the oldest trade in Africa are refusing rescue after being tracked down by police from their home country, the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported on Saturday. Police officers from China flew in to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November last year in the country's first operation to rescue women trafficked to Africa. They found 11 Chinese women who had been promised decent jobs in Paris by traffickers but ended up working in a Chinese-owned karaoke bar in the country's capital Kinshasa, the newspaper said.
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Zambia: Miner gets death sentence for murdering Chinese boss
The Lusaka High Court has slapped a death penalty on a Lusaka Man after he was found guilty of murdering a Chinese boss at Collum Coal Mine in Chongwe district. Pythias Chinene, was charged with murdering Zong Tangku who was his supervisor at the Chinese owned mining farm February 2, 2010.
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Bosses charged in Zambia mine shooting skip court
A Zambian judge has issued arrest warrants for two Chinese coal mine managers after the defendants failed to appear in court on accusations of firing upon striking workers. Xiao Li Shan, 48, and Wu Jiu Hua, 46, have been charged with 12 counts of attempted murder after firing on striking workers. Nearly a dozen miners were injured in the shooting on Oct. 15. They were released on a $10,700 bail in October.
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China Non Ferrous metals to employ skilled Zambians
China Non Ferrous metals Africa will consider employing skilled Zambians when operations begin at its USD 400 million Greenfield open Mulyashi copper mine in Luanshya on the copper rich region this year and encourage skills development. China non ferrous, owners of Luanshya Copper Mine which is developing the open pit mine said while it might seek to outsouce skilled manpower, most of the jobs will be undertaken by Zambians because many of the people working for the company were skilled, given their past experiences with Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines conglomerate.
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China to extend US$10-bln loans to Africa in 2010-2012
China plans to provide US$10-billion preferential loans to Africa in the next two years for the latter's infrastructure construction, according to a white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation released by the Chinese government. Pursuant to the paper, the loans will support the construction of large-scale projects in Africa, including Mauritius Airport and Bui hydropower station in Ghana.
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'African countries invested US$9.33bn in China in 2009'
African countries invested some US$9.33 billion in China in 2009, according to a report published by the Chinese government on China-Africa economic and trade relations. The 29-page report said the investments were mainly in the petrochemical industry, equipment, electronics, transport and communications.
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China unveils white paper on economic, trade cooperation with Africa
The Chinese government Thursday released a white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, highlighting achievements and a bright future for China and African countries to boost their growth. It was China's first-ever white paper on its economic and trade cooperation with Africa. "Practice proves that China-Africa economic and trade cooperation serves the common interests of the two sides, helps Africa to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals, and boosts common prosperity and progress for China and Africa," said the white paper. The 29-page white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced facts of trade development, investment expansion, infrastructure construction collaboration and other fields of cooperation between China and Africa.
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China Africa trade reaches $100 billion in 2010
China will boost further its already expanding economic ties with Africa, which reached a record two-way volume of more than $100 billion this year, the government said Thursday. Chinese demand for oil, gas, iron ore and other raw materials for its rapidly growing economy has spurred trade and investments in Africa in recent years. A central government report released Thursday said that in the first 11 months of this year, China-Africa trade volume reached $114.81 billion, a 43.5 percent year-on-year increase. That follows a decline in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.
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China remains leader of FDI inflows to SADC in 2010 - report
China remained the leader in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region during 2010, including signature of a new 79 million U. S. dollars agreement with Angola to supply equipment for the rehabilitation of the Benguela Railway (CFB), a report has said. According to the report by SADC Today issued on Friday, Southern Africa continues to strengthen its profile as an investment destination, attracting major inflows from China in the mining, agriculture, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors.
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China-Africa trade set to keep on booming in 2011
It has been a bumper year for commerce between China and Africa. The Asian giant is hungry for resources to fuel its expanding economy - and many African nations are determined to feed it in order to trade their way to prosperity. The boom in Sino-African trade has caused concern in some circles - but 2011 is expected to see business between the two hit record levels.
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Chinese firm eyes fruit production in province
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) has unveiled what is expected to become a massive investment in fruit production for the Chinese market. The investment involves China cultivating fruit on 500ha of land in the Alfred Nzo municipality. This followed an agreement between the municipality and Shanghai-based Yebo Africa Trading Hall (Yath). The fruit would be sold in the US. “The province’s abundant agricultural land has seen China survey the province for farming business opportunities to supplement its own scarce land resources,” said ECDC spokesperson Ikhona Mvaphantsi. Yath is an entity formed by Chinese businessmen to facilitate trade between Africa and China, and the company would open its doors for trade in March.
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China pledges to Uganda infrastructure and oil industry development
Chinese ambassador to Uganda, Sun Heping, said his country’s assistance to Uganda’s infrastructure and oil industry development will continue. Speaking to a Chinese news agency earlier this week, Heping said: "The Chinese government has attached great importance to the development of infrastructure in Africa, Uganda in particular, and made it one of the key areas of cooperation in the framework of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.”
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Kenya seeks power, rail deals with China
Kenya has appealed to the Chinese government to offer both financial and technical assistance to the East African Community (EAC) partner states particularly in energy and rail development. The Minister for East African Community Prof Hellen Sambili said on Tuesday that the EAC had identified potential projects for joint promotion such as the proposed East African Power Pool and was therefore looking for support to improve power reliability in the region. "Possible areas of partnership include development of renewable power generation projects such as geothermal and wind plants and cross-border electrification power interconnection," the minister said when she hosted a visiting Chinese delegation in her office.
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Chinese group takes big stake in Wesizwe
WESIZWE Platinum has secured funding of 877m (R6bn) from a Chinese consortium that will take a big stake in the group. It has set up a new special-purpose vehicle to give empowerment investors 6% of the enlarged share issue. Wesizwe shares hit a six- month high on Friday, reaching R2,12 each, on news that the principal asset in the group will be funded to production, which will start in 2013 and reach a steady state of 350000 ounces a year of platinum group metals two years later. The deal will result in the Chinese consortium, comprising the Jinchuan Group, China’s largest producer of nickel and platinum group metals, and the China-Africa Development Fund, buying 45% of Wesizwe and heavily diluting existing investors, something management had to address when considering the company’s empowerment holdings.
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Here’s for scholars keen on Sino-African ties
African scholars interested in the growing relations between their continent and China, will have a chance to debate this important topic at a meeting scheduled for March 28-30 in Nairobi, Kenya. "It is now time to involve the African scholars in this process, along with their Chinese counterparts," says Professor Osita C. Eze, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, and one of the scholars promoting the project on July 10th 2010 at a meeting between African scholars in Dakar.
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China’s 4G Is Hope Be A Worldwide Standard
China hopes that its own mobile satellite telecommunications technology fourth generation (4G) to become a standard used worldwide, especially in developing markets such as Africa or Latin America, according to industry experts cited today by the official newspaper China Daily. The technology, also known as TD-LTE is being developed in China by state-owned China Mobile, the world’s largest number of users, and can achieve data transmission speeds up to 150 Mb per second. According to a deputy chief engineer of China Academy of Telecommunications Research, Chen Jingqiao, many international operators have contacted the company mentioned, expressing their wish to adopt this technology.
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Coin Suggests Past Chinese-African Trade
Yongle Tongbao coins of 15th century China are back in the news as Chinese and Kenyan archaeologists continue to study the coins as artifacts as they connect the dots regarding past trade between China and the East African region. According to an article posted Oct. 20 on www.AfrikNews.com, “The story of a small rusted coin with a square hole in the middle will certainly rewrite the dynamics of China-Africa relations and give impetus to China-Africa trade.” Professor Qin Dashu of the Department of Archaeology at Beijing University is leading the Chinese team that is working closely with Kenyan archaeologists. According to Qin, “These coins were carried only by envoys of the emperor, Chengzu.” (Chengzu was from the Ming Dynasty.) Qin suggested the coin his team has been studying may have been a gift from the emperor. It was issued between 1403 and 1424, and was discovered recently in the northern town of Malindi, Kenya.
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3. In Other Emerging Powers News

Egypt Calls for Increasing Arab Investment in Africa
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit stressed the importance of increasing Arab investments in Africa to achieve development goals and increase African economies competitiveness, trade volume between Arab and African countries and their exports to Europe, Islamic countries and China. Foreign Minister Assistant Ambassador Sherif Naguib delivered a speech on behalf of Abul-Gheit to the Arab Private Sector Forum for Transport and Movement in the Arab States, which began its work in Alexandria.
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Western Cape keen to triple UAE trade
The premier of South Africa's Western Cape region said yesterday she wanted to treble trade ties with the UAE over the next few years. Helen Zille, who is leading a government and business delegation to Abu Dhabi, said trade between the UAE and the Western Cape was moving in the right direction but not fast enough. "There is enormous potential but it needs to grow faster, especially given that South Africa, and the Western Cape in particular, has such a large capacity and solid fundamentals," she said."The purpose of the visit is to deepen and broaden the opportunities for trade and investment both ways. Abu Dhabi is an international hub and a springboard for further expansion of trade and investment in areas as far afield as Syria, Lebanon and India. We have a well established platform because there is already balanced trade between the Western Cape and Abu Dhabi but we want to extend that substantially".
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S. Korea eyes Africa, other emerging markets to boost trade
South Korea must look for new opportunities in newly emerging markets, such as Africa and South America, to continue expanding its exports, while also seeking to establish a stronger presence in the US$9 trillion global public procurement market, a local trade agency said Thursday. The announcement came as the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) launched a global market forum at a Seoul hotel, offering country- and industry-specific sessions on how to start new businesses in the emerging markets, including China and India, as well as global software and government procurement markets.
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4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

China challenged over Sudan referendum
As South Sudan's referendum on independence on January 9 draws nearer, the international community is preparing for the possible division of Sudan into two independent states. With signs of growing tensions and several issues still to be resolved by negotiations - notably agreements on the demarcation of a north-south border and the distribution of oil revenue - there is a risk of a return to the decades-long civil war fought between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) that was ended by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called Sudan a "ticking time bomb" and launched a fresh diplomatic drive aimed at applying pressure on both sides to avoid conflict. Amid the uptick in high-level diplomacy, however, the role to be played by China remains a crucial but unexplored factor in discussions about the referendum and beyond.
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Continuity and Change: China’s Attitude toward Hard Power and Soft Power
Some observers perceive a change over the past year or so in the priority given to hard power and soft power in Chinese foreign policy. Has there really been a change? From a Chinese perspective, the short answer to this question is that there is both continuity and change. On the continuity side, China’s belief in hard power has not changed much. As a developing country with a hundred-year long humiliating experience in its modern history, China has learned the vital importance of hard power in protecting one’s sovereignty, and has been trying very hard to attain hard power through economic development and military modernization.
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China and India's Growing Energy Rivalry
According to China's Foreign Ministry, there is nothing off the table for Premier Wen Jiabao on his three-day visit to India, which began on Wednesday, Dec. 15. Premier Wen's dialogue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address obstacles blocking a future China-India free-trade agreement in addition to the simmering dispute over the 90,000-square-kilometer territory of Arunachal Pradesh, which is currently under Indian control and claimed by China. These are important issues hindering better relations between the world's two most populous countries. Conspicuously left out of the dialogue is frank discussion about managing future energy security. This is a significant omission since energy competition will be the most likely cause of serious tension and possibly even war between the two emerging Asian giants.
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N Chandra Mohan: The India-China FDI safari
Since the start of the 21st century, fast globalising corporations from China and India have shown a growing appetite for foreign direct investments (FDI) not just in the developed but also developing world, especially Africa. India’s outbound FDI was as much as $14.9 billion while that of China was three times larger at $48 billion in 2009, according to the UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2010. What explains this surge in investments from these emerging economies? What are the similarities and differences in outward flows from China and India? Professor R Nagaraj of the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in a recent paper “Outward FDI from China and India: an Exploratory Note” observed common motivations for outward FDI: “both the countries are (relative to their size) natural resource poor, for their industrial requirements and national ambitions. Both the countries have a mature industrial base, acquired over five decades of rapid industrialisation.” To rapidly expand their capabilities, they require access to advanced technology markets.
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Decade-old China-Africa Cooperation Forum yields abundant fruits
Big progress in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been made over the past 10 years, partly owing to the FOCAC. China's grant assistance, zero-interest loans and preferential loans to Africa all increased by a wide margin. By the end of 2009, China had canceled more than 300 zero-interest loans owed by 35 heavily-indebted needy countries and least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa. Compare to the year 2000 when the forum was first set up, the China-Africa bilateral trade volume boosted from 10.6 billion U.S. dollars to more than 100 billion U.S. dollars this year, an annual growth rate of over 30 percent, making China Africa's largest trading partner. The Chinese government also launched several initiatives to balance the bilateral trade that African countries' exports to China also grew rapidly, from 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 43.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2009.
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Challenges await China this decade
The key to a wise diplomatic strategy for China in the coming decade will be to balance its coexisting four international identities in the face of a decentralized, multi-polar world, experts say. As illustrated in the official guidelines of "major powers are the key, surrounding areas are the first priority, developing countries are the foundation, and multilateral forums are the important stage", China's foreign policy has reflected several elements simultaneously.
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China puts noses out of joint with rare earths policy
The waters of the reservoir at Shangmankeng village in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong used to be clear. Then, a local rare earth mine began dumping mud into the pond, killing all the fish and making the water unfit to drink. Li, a local villager who took pictures of the damage and campaigned against the mining, was viciously beaten by government-hired thugs armed with metal pipes, according to reports by Radio Free Asia. What could have been another obscure struggle over environmental violations in rural China emerged as an issue of global concern in September. A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near some disputed islands, and the trawler captain was arrested. In retaliation, the Chinese allegedly blocked shipments of rare earth metals to Japan, although this was officially denied. By October, rare earth metal prices had doubled. Rare earth metals have emerged, suddenly and unexpectedly, as an economic, geopolitical and environmental battlefield in the hoped-for green-energy revolution.
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Crouching Lions, Hidden Dragon
The baggage lounge at Addis Abeba’s Bole International Airport is filled with activity as the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Beijing arrives. Young Chinese men, casually dressed in flannel trousers and shirts, gather around the luggage belt, lifting off large suitcases and heavily wrapped boxes. A crowd of these arrivals, perhaps 50 strong, queue up together outside to be collected by a fleet of waiting minibuses. These young men are not tourists. They live in Ethiopia, and more part of the influx of Chinese labour over the past decade that has changed the face of Africa. In countries across the continent, Chinese communities have sprung up. Some are based around the myriad infrastructure projects that the world’s emerging superpower is implementing. Many are simply trading on a small scale, importing buckets and work tools, the low-cost essentials that power rural life on this continent.
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Moises Naim and the $9 Billion Dollar Myth
This week in an Indian opinion piece on India-China rivalry, I read yet another reference to a myth first circulated (I think) by Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, and then picked up by Fareed Zakaria. This is a great story. The only problem is (as I point out in The Dragon's Gift): it never happened.
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US Far Outstrips China in Arms Sales to Dictators
Kristin Jones reports for the South China Morning Post on the surprising result of a new Norwegian study that examined US versus Chinese arms exports. She also quotes some of my reservations on the study's methodology.
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