Eastern Influence in Africa

With Zimbabwe’s economy failing, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai has been crossing the globe recently. He’s meeting with foreign leaders to secure emergency aid.  While Western countries offered some donations with strings attached, yesterday China came to the African country’s rescue- offering nearly $1 billion in credit.  

We’re tracking the reactions and controversy stemming from China’s unprecedented loan to the cash-strapped African nation.

U.K. based paper The Zimbabwean has this perspective from a Zimbabwe official who dismisses criticism for looking to China rather than the West for help.

‘Look west, look east, look north, look south, and look at yourself.' Given that the government is seeking a more than $8 billion economic recovery program in the worst international economic climate for three decades, this pragmatism makes sense.”

The search for aid was politicized when President Robert Mugabe criticized Tsvangarai and his party for failing to bring back enough money from Western countries. AllAfrica.com cites a source quoting Mugabe...

“That is the weapon we now have. They have gone West, now we go East... We will certainly be delivering much more than they... are able to deliver.”

NTV Kenya reports that Zimbabwe had to turn to China for condition-free aid. Mugabe’s poor human rights record and the country’s history of misallocating foreign aid hurt the country’s case in the West.

“Western donors crucial for Zimbabwe’s recovery from a ten-year economic crisis have said that aid would only flow to the southern African country when political and economic reforms are implemented”

The Australian says that China doesn’t share those concerns and that the move is the latest example of China’s controversial support of Mugabe.  

“China has embarked on a continent-wide drive to secure influence across Africa, in an effort to secure future sources of raw materials, and is seen to have none of the qualms that exist in Washington and elsewhere about Mugabe's human rights violations.”

But a writer on Examiner.com, a citizen journalism website, says China isn’t doing the Zimbabwean people any favors.

“It's possible that China's billion-dollar loan has given the régime in Zimbabwe as it is currently consisted a new lease on life. And, frankly, that's a shame... China's aid to Zimbabwe, in the end, is the extension of the people of Zimbabwe's sentence under the iron heel of Mugabe.”

So what do you think?  Is China actually trying to help Zimbabwe or just themselves?