Inscrutable Relations

While western freedomisers and their media chums were joining with the likes of Israel and Saudi Arabia to say rah for Charlie Hebdo and meh for Boko Haram, the Heathen Chinee have been denying the grave and embarrassing charge that they are behaving like Europeans. When it comes to their interests in Africa, the Heathen Chinee have been accused of empire-building and ethical deafness, in stark contrast to western interventions from the slave trade through the Congo Free State to Shell's present-day nurturing of the Niger delta. A shocked American official has noted in a diplomatic cable that "China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons. China is in Africa for China primarily", which is not at all the way America does things; and the Heathen Chinee themselves admit that their foreign aid comes with no strings attached, thereby propping up authoritarian rulers whose demise would certainly be celebrated if China were to treat Angola, Sudan and Zimbabwe with the same tough love as the forces of freedomisation have meted out to Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq. Nevertheless, "China will never follow the track of western colonists and all cooperation with Africa will never come at the expense of the ecology, environment or long-term interests of Africa," proclaimed the Heathen Chinee foreign minister. A likely story.