Saturday 19 April 2008

China’s aiding Africa’s despotism


America and Britain very often disappoint many of their followers and incur their wrath for obvious reasons. They most often talk but do little to curb the excesses of some tyrannical regimes. Take the case of China and the Olympics and then come back to look at the way China is making unhindered forays into African markets and beyond despite its awful human rights records.
If Beijing’s brutalisation of Tibetans is not worrisome enough to both nations, then one would have expected them to rise up and confront Robert Mugabe who woefully lost last month’s general elections but defiantly and shamelessly sat on the results. But painfully all we got was an oral vilification from Washington and a terse rebuke from London a few days ago. All that looks like pouring water on the feathers of a hen- it falls away leaving the hen to fly away safely.
Because China and Zimbabwe are being treated by the big powers with kid gloves, China has gone ahead to ferry deadly weapons into Harare while the controversy over the election results is yet to be resolved. China remains the largest supplier of arms and weapons to Sudan, thus escalating the killings in Darfur while at home it is suppressing any voice of dissent against the hosting of the 2008 Olympics and Tibetan autonomy.
Expectedly, with this type of lackadaisical attitude from the leading nations, China will continue to saturate despotic African nations with arms to fight their opponents and destroy democratic structures as long as no one shouts against its impunity. Nigeria for instance, has already signed a multi-million dollar oil and rail deal with the despotic regime. It stands to gain from China what the democratic nations have denied it. What a shame and dishonour to the colonial powers that once dominated the black continent?

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