two different forms of neo-colonialism in africa: the us and china. not much to choose from between them.

It is becoming increasingly clear that China is forging ahead as a world superpower by using strategic economic investments rather than military force, while the US is dusting off old Cold War templates.

Here is John Glaser's wrap-up of current US operations in Africa, the vast majority of which have been initiated under the Obama administration:

The United States is in the midst of fighting a new war in Africa, following familiar foreign policy conventions applied previously, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East, to ruinous results.

The strategy is characterized by military aid to and reliance on brutish, undemocratic regimes, proxy militias, and targeted special operations as opposed to invasion and occupation. All of this is done without the consent of Congress and for the most part in secret.

The renewed focus on Somalia is a case in point. The US is running CIA blacksites as prisons and supporting thuggish militias to fight al-Shabaab, all while conducting covert kill/capture raids with Joint Special Operations Command forces. The allied regimes of Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and others are joining the fight against the Somali militants as Predator and Reaper drones unleash airstrikes launched from bases in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Seychelles.

In June, for example, the Pentagon sent about $45 million in military equipment to Uganda and Burundi, as well as four small drones, body armor and night-vision and communications gear, which their collective 9,000 US-supported troops use in the fight against al-Shabaab. Additionally, Obama last month sent 100 combat troops to the region in support of the Ugandan government.

And while the US has officially denied accusations that it is supporting Kenya’s current invasion and bombing of southern Somalia, they admit they have given Kenya $24 million this year in military and police aid “to counter terrorists and participate in peacekeeping operations.”

Through the Pentagon’s Africa Command, the US is training and equipping militaries in countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia in the name of preventing “terrorists from establishing sanctuaries.” The strategy appears irreconcilable with recent history, however, given the US-sponsored invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in 2006 gave rise to the militant group al-Shabaab – now ironically justifying current interventions.

Meanwhile, the old men in Bejing are applying money instead of troops.  From The Economist:

Once feted as saviours in much of Africa, Chinese have come to be viewed with mixed feelings—especially in smaller countries where China’s weight is felt all the more. To blame, in part, are poor business practices imported alongside goods and services. Chinese construction work can be slapdash and buildings erected by mainland firms have on occasion fallen apart. A hospital in Luanda, the capital of Angola, was opened with great fanfare but cracks appeared in the walls within a few months and it soon closed. The Chinese-built road from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to Chirundu, 130km (81 miles) to the south-east, was quickly swept away by rains.

Chinese expatriates in Africa come from a rough-and-tumble, anything-goes business culture that cares little about rules and regulations. Local sensitivities are routinely ignored at home, and so abroad. Sinopec, an oil firm, has explored in a Gabonese national park. Another state oil company has created lakes of spilled crude in Sudan. Zimbabwe’s environment minister said Chinese multinationals were “operating likemakorokoza miners”, a scornful term for illegal gold-panners.

Employees at times fare little better than the environment. At Chinese-run mines in Zambia’s copper belt they must work for two years before they get safety helmets. Ventilation below ground is poor and deadly accidents occur almost daily. To avoid censure, Chinese managers bribe union bosses and take them on “study tours” to massage parlours in China. Obstructionist shop stewards are sacked and workers who assemble in groups are violently dispersed. When cases end up in court, witnesses are intimidated....

Indeed, China has boosted employment in Africa and made basic goods like shoes and radios more affordable. Trade surpassed $120 billion last year (see chart 1). In the past two years China has given more loans to poor countries, mainly in Africa, than the World Bank. The Heritage Foundation, an American think-tank, estimates that in 2005-10 about 14% of China’s investment abroad found its way to sub-Saharan Africa (see chart 2). Most goes in the first place to Hong Kong. The Heritage Foundation has tried to trace its final destination.

Reading this makes two things increasingly clear:

1.  The Chinese are following a set strategy for building their own new world order, one based on exporting authoritarian, State-supported capitalism on a strongly neo-colonial model.  They are at least two decades into a quiet Cold War with the West while we diddle with our never-ending role as global militarists of both first and last resort.  It is an almost completely asymmetrical Cold War that we are actually slowly losing, in part because we are not even fighting it.


2.  Nobody on either side--Chinese venture capitalists or the American military-industrial complex--actually seems to give a shit about the developing world.  As in the 1970s when Cubans and South Africans were proxies in the original Cold War, Africa remains a battleground that is sufficiently far from home and culturally remote that we don't have to worry about the moral implications of our actions.