INTD 200 – Introduction to International Development
Fall 2010

What are the negative impacts of China’s investment on Africa?
865 words

In this op-ed, I will talk about China’s investment in Africa, how they are trading natural resources in exchange for helping Africans to industrialize and develop. China does not have enough raw materials and therefore outsource them from many African countries. While, in 2003 China’s foreign direct investment in Africa was worth 400 million dollars, it reached 7 billion dollars in 2008. Africa’s trade has been growing by 50% every year, therefore making China Africa’s first trading partner.

Even though this position can be argued, the mutual partnership is more beneficial to China than to Africa. Numerous reasons expose why Africa should consider carefully China’s propositions in terms of potential impacts on their own development and economy. Despite the negative side of this foreign investment, one must not forget that it also has had many great consequences as it enables the African continent to industrialize itself faster, as well as focus on other areas such as education and health. However, the current situation could degenerate with Chinese abuse of power towards a weak Africa and simply end up as a repetition of the colonization era.

The first reason to why Africa should carefully consider its position with China, is that more resources are going out of Africa than are going in, therefore leading to overexploitation. It is not a fair exchange in terms of quantity and money. For example, Angola imports 15.2% of Chinese resources, but exports 32.9% of their own to China. This means that twice the amount of what comes in leaves Angola to China’s benefit. Africa is therefore losing on many aspects and should reconsider its position with China to make this trading investment truly equal and fair on both sides. Since resources are so valuable, especially today as we are facing severe shortages, Africa should keep