This city is littered with such tokens of a friendship that first
flowered when Guinea was an isolated and struggling socialist state in
the late 1950s.
But so far Guinea has not gotten what it really wants from the world's
fastest growing economy: a multibillion-dollar deal to build
desperately needed infrastructure in exchange for access to the
impoverished nation's vast reserves of bauxite and iron ore.
As global commodity prices have plummeted and several of China's
African partners have stumbled deeper into chaos, China has backed away
from some of its riskiest and most aggressive plans, looking for the
same guarantees that Western companies have long sought for their
investments: economic and political stability.
The political situation is not very stable, Huo Zhengde, the Chinese
ambassador here, said in an interview, explaining the country's
hesitation to invest billions in Guinea, where a junta seized power
after the death of the longtime president in December. The
international markets are not favorable.
Just a year ago China appeared to be upending the decades-old order in
Africa, stepping into the void left by large Western companies too
timid to invest in the continent's resource-rich but fragile states as
the market for copper, tin, oil and timber soared to new heights. In
the new scramble for Africa's riches, China sought a hefty share.
With a no-strings-attached approach and a strong appetite for risk,
China seemed to offer Africa a complete economic and political
alternative to the heavily conditioned aid and economic restructuring
that Western countries and international aid agencies pressed on Africa
for years, often with uninspiring consequences. Rising China, seeking
friends and resources, seemed to be issuing blank checks.
Today, China's quest for commodities has not stalled. State-owned
companies are bargain-hunting for copper and iron ore in more stable
places like Zambia and Liberia. But Chinese companies are now driving
harder bargains and avoiding some of the most chaotic corners of the
continent. African governments facing falling revenues are realizing
that they may still need the West's help after all.
We have seen in the recent past Chinese companies wade into countries
nobody else would, said Philippe de Pontet, an analyst at the Eurasia
Group, a private research firm. That may be changing.
In 2007 China announced a $9 billion deal with Congo for access to its
giant trove of copper, cobalt, tin and gold in exchange for developing
roads, schools, dams and railways needed to rebuild a country roughly
the size of Western Europe and shattered by more than a decade of war.
But that deal is now in doubt as falling prices have left Congo in a
much weaker negotiating position. It also suddenly finds itself needing
the help of the International Monetary Fund, which has objected to
writing off the country's old debt even as Congo takes on what amounts
to new mineral-backed loans from China. Congo's political and ethnic
turmoil remains deep, and its economy is near collapse.
A year ago those factors seemed irrelevant. Chinese companies did not
flinch from making deals to search for oil in the pirate-infested
waters off Somalia, or to mine industrial metals in places like
Zimbabwe.
Unlike many Western companies, Chinese state oil companies had no
qualms about doing business with the government of Sudan, which has
become an international pariah because of the conflict in Darfur.
China espoused a new model for African investment: mutually beneficial
trade between sovereign nations with none of the meddling so common
among Western donors and investors, with their demands for labor and
environmental standards, as well as respect for democracy and human
rights.
These policies proved popular among African governments, and trade
between Africa and China grew to more than $100 billion by 2008, from
less than $10 million in the 1980s. African leaders spoke openly about
China's offer of an alternative to the edicts of Western-dominated
institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
But here in Guinea, which has some of the world's largest deposits of
bauxite, an ore needed for making aluminum, that hope has all but
collapsed.
The Chinese have changed their strategy, said Ibrahima Sory Diallo, a
senior economist in Guinea's Ministry of Finance and an advocate for
Chinese investment. They are not going to inject $5 billion into an
unstable country in an uncertain market climate.
French colonists once called Guinea a geological scandal, so rich are
its deposits of valuable minerals. Despite years of mining and billions
in profits, Guinea remains one of the poorest and least developed
countries in Africa.
So it is no surprise that Guinea's government, first under Lansana
Cont, the strongman who ruled for 24 years until his death last year,
and the junta that replaced him, wanted to tap China's cash and
building expertise.
China's approach to securing minerals in Africa has been to sign
agreements to build huge projects in exchange for minerals. In Angola,
this kind of arrangement has guaranteed Chinese access to oil in
Africa's fourth largest oil producer, which is now booming after
emerging tattered and broke from a vicious civil war that lasted
decades. Chinese and Angolan officials trumpeted this partnership as a
model for Chinese investment in the continent, a win-win relationship
benefiting both countries.
But that formulation has proved problematic in an economic downturn.
African governments are now realizing that these deals are in essence
loans against future revenue, and falling prices could leave them
saddled with giant piles of debt.
That is what appears to have happened in Congo. At current prices Congo
would struggle to meet the stringent production targets in the Chinese
deal, said Patricia Feeney, executive director of Rights and
Accountability in Development, a Britain-based advocacy group.
The Congolese have raised expectations so much that they could rely on
Chinese and turn their backs on Western donors, and in the process they
have probably managed to alienate people who were willing to help, Ms.
Feeney said.
In Guinea, China has backed away from what Guinean officials portrayed
as a done deal to build a much-needed $1 billion hydroelectric dam.
The dam is not a gift; it is an investment, said Mr. Huo, the Chinese ambassador. That is what win-win means.
Guineans are increasingly suspicious of Chinese investment. Many people
see Chinese companies as being just as exploitative as Western ones, if
not more so. After the military took power in December, it raided
Chinese companies suspected of selling fake medicines, but the raids
degenerated into open looting of Chinese businesses, tapping a vein of
resentment long suppressed.
Hamidou Cond works bare-chested under the relentless sun, digging a
hole for the foundation of a new hospital being built by a Chinese
company, yet another symbol of Chinese-Guinean friendship.
Mr. Cond, 35, who has two wives and four children, said that he had
been digging in the hard rock with a shovel, pick and ax for two
months, but that he had yet to receive any pay from his Chinese
taskmasters.
We work like slaves, Mr. Cond said. And like slaves we are not paid. The Chinese bring nothing good to Guinea.
The New York Times
Post published in: News