Knowledge Network: Research and Opinions

Chinese efforts to develop Africa have led to a new era of colonialism that sometimes stirs resentment on the continent, two Thunderbird alumni said Nov. 6 during a panel discussion at the Thunderbird Global Reunion in Macau.

“Instead of employing Africans, they’re bringing over thousands of Chinese,” said Chris Fussner, a 1982 Thunderbird graduate who lives in Singapore. “Africans are greatly resenting this new Chinese colonialism.”

Fussner said Chinese investors have spent billions of dollars in Africa developing telecommunications, hydroelectric systems and other forms of infrastructure. “A lot of this infrastructure used to come from France, Britain and the former colonial powers,” he said. “Now it all comes from China.”

Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., moderated the panel discussion, which included 1965 Thunderbird graduate Laurence Lipsher, a Hong Kong accountant and author of The Tax Analects of Li Fei Lao. Fussner is founder and president of Trans-Tec, a high-technology equipment supplier with facilities in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Lipsher said China takes economic development in Africa seriously, which is why leading Chinese economists gathered Oct. 31 north of Beijing to talk about foreign aid, balance of trade and other African issues.

“China is very cognizant that it must develop Africa,” Lipsher said.

This is why China has 84 government workers assigned to its embassy in Seychelles, a chain of islands between Asia and Africa with 83,000 residents. “Seychelles has natural deep sea ports, which makes it very important logistically for China because of Africa,” Lipsher said.

Watch excerpts from the panel discussion in the Thunderbird Knowledge Network videos below.

Posted: 11|19|09 at 2:22 pm.
Filed under: Emerging Markets, Teagarden, Mary.
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