Africa should beware of the “new colonialism” played by China, said Saturday U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Lusaka, the first step in a five-day tour in Africa.
Asked by Zambian television on Beijing’s growing influence on the continent, the U.S. chief diplomat said that Africans should be wary of partners who deal only with the elite.
“We do not want to see a new colonialism in Africa, ” she said. “We do not want to see (investors) undermine good governance in Africa.”
According to Hillary Clinton, African states can learn much about how Asian governments boost economic growth, but the U.S. secretary of state said that in her view, China was not a political model.
“We are starting to see a lot of problems in China that will only worsen over the next ten years”, she said, taking for example the willingness of the Chinese government to control the Internet. “There are more lessons to be learned from the United States and democracies, ” Hillary Clinton assured.
China has invested nearly ten billion dollars in Africa in 2009 and Sino-African trade has grown significantly, Beijing is buying oil and raw materials to fuel its growth.
After Zambia, Hillary Clinton will visit Tanzania and Ethiopia.