África disputada por EUA e China

Discurso bonitinho dos EUA porque estão tendo menos espaço na África do que a China. A realidade é clara: China tem interesses econômicos no continente. E não tem essa de "desenvolvimento" por si só. (vide situação de país que não tem nada a oferecer, como o Timor)

Reino Unido – Financial Times

China attacks Clinton’s Africa comments

By Katrina Manson in Nairobi

Chinese state media have lashed out at Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, after she warned African leaders about co-operation with countries who want to exploit the continent’s resources.
On a tour of sub-Saharan Africa to promote political stability, Mrs Clinton said this week that the US would stand up for democracy and universal human rights, “even when it might be easier or more profitable to look the other way, to keep the resources flowing”.
 “Not every partner makes that choice, but we do and we will,” she said, without naming China, in a speech delivered in Senegal.
The “implication that China has been extracting Africa’s wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth”, a commentary from Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency said on Friday of Mrs Clinton’s comment that the US was committed to a model that “adds value rather than extracts it”.
Mrs Clinton’s words offered “cheap shots” and were part of “a plot to sow discord between China [and] Africa” for the US’s “selfish gain”, said Xinhua. It added that her trip was part of a hidden agenda, “aimed at least partly at discrediting China’s engagement with the continent and curbing China’s influence there”.
Mrs Clinton’s 11-day trip to Africa comes as China continues to gain influence in markets across the continent – home to vast resource wealth and some of the world’s fastest-growing countries.
While President Barack Obama unveiled a new Africa strategy in June, focusing on democracy, economic growth, security and development, China has promised Africa $20bn in loans in the next three years.
China, which put Sino-African trade at $166bn last year, overtook the US as Africa’s largest partner three years ago.
“There is a general sense that China appears to be eclipsing America in Africa,” said Comfort Ero, Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group. “This is her [Mrs Clinton’s] second big pitch to try to sell the differences between the US and China in a positive way, suggesting the US has Africa’s interests at heart and is genuinely concerned with progress around democracy, and that China is only interested in grabbing resources,” said Ms Ero, referring to a visit by Mrs Clinton to Africa last year.
Mrs Clinton, whose trip takes in Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Ghana, was accompanied by a large US business delegation, and stressed Africa’s economic potential. “We believe that if you want to make a good investment in the midst of what is still a very difficult global economy, go to Africa,” she said during the same speech.
She voiced fears that the continent was “backsliding” on democracy.
Meanwhile, she has faced criticism over her close relationship with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, whose army makes up the bulk of a heavily US-funded African Union force that fights Islamist militants in Somalia, but who has refused to step down.
The US focus on governance is “inconsistent and shifts with its interests”, said Daniel Kalinaki, managing editor of Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper. After 2010 bombings in Uganda, carried out by al-Qaeda-linked, Somalia-based militants, “all the talk of democracy was suddenly replaced by talk about regional security and Somalia”.
Mrs Clinton met Mr Museveni and President Salva Kiir of South Sudan on Friday, stressing the need for strong institutions and adherence to the constitution. She is due to meet President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya on Saturday before travelling to Malawi and then South Africa.