My favorite Ghanaian libertarian think-tanker, Bright Simons, writes:
China isn’t in Africa merely to snap up raw materials, exploit African labor, or build geopolitical influence. Rather, its goals blend a combination of all the above with a need to beta-test future global brands, open new markets, enhance its soft power through international organizations such as the International Standards Organization—where African votes carry more than a third of the weight—nurture a new diaspora and build a resilient microeconomic bridge by exporting entrepreneurs.
This consensus has taken a while to arrive, and even today there is a residual school of thought still enamored of the old “African commodities for Chinese cash—full stop” theory.
It appears we may have to shatter another myth: China is deserting Africa because its global priorities are changing in the face of the global recession.
China’s engagement with Africa has barely begun. As far as the stock of foreign investment in Africa is concerned, the Asian giant is still dwarfed by the West 10 to 1, but not for long if Beijing has anything to do with it. For China, Africa is a strategic play, requiring the stamina for which its strategists have always been famous. …
Hmmm, sounds a bit like the companies James Surowiecki describes in the latest New Yorker—risk-takers (like Kellogg, Kraft and Chrysler in the 1930s) that kept investing during a downturn and made big market share gains as a result. The gamble on China’s part is really whether Africa will ever become an important enough economic force in areas other than mining and drilling to make such an effort worthwhile. And on anything but the most parochial level, you kind of have to hope that the gamble pays off.