The latest African leader to embrace the Trojan horse that China has placed in the heart of the developing world is Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
In the same week that China gave $2bn to Ghana, President Kagame has singled Beijing out for high praise for the way it does business in Africa. On the other hand, he is heavily critical of the west for basing its relations with the continent on aid.
Kagame’s self-serving cynical posturing would be laughable were the consequences of China’s predatory interests in the continent, not so grave. China’s chequebook does not differentiate between the corrupt and the clean. Its interests are purely selfish. In its insatiable hunger for resources it is utterly indiscriminate with whom it does business, buying up what ever it can.
There is no conditionality or oversight concerning its loans, thus corrupt leaders can carry on leeching on their people without fear of the consequences. Any attempts at establishing good governance – or in rooting out corruption, which costs the continent $140bn annually – thus become redundant.
The truth is that if the Chinese continue to drain Africa of its scant wealth, then the continent will be left a dust bowl, and any prospect of sufficiency will be wiped out.
The west cannot stay silent as the poor are sold out by their unscrupulous leaders to the highest bidder.
John O’Shea
Goal
PO Box 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
