ZAMBIACHINA Shoot first, negotiate later 21st October 2010 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Opposition politicians lambast the Lusaka government’s timidity after Chinese managers shoot Zambian mine workers Mayhem broke out on 15 October at the Collum Coal Mine in southern Zambia after Chinese owners shot workers protesting over dangerous and difficult working conditions. The workers were demanding higher salaries and an explanation as to why they had not been paid for two months. The tense relations between Chinese managers and Zambian workers is a critical issue ahead of 2011 national elections. Asian investments are an emotive issue in Zambia. Chinese mine managers have clashed with protesting workers several times before. India’s Vedanta Resources has also come under fire from civic groups for refusing to renegotiate its low royalty and tax obligations when world copper and cobalt prices soared.
GHANACHINA A consensual affair 21st October 2010 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Oppositionists call for scrutiny of the promised financing from Beijing amid concerns over spiralling national debt The stratospheric figures – all in billions of dollars – emerging from President John Atta Mills’s grand tour of Asia last month suggest the love affair between Accra and Asia’s bi...
GHANAASIA The cost of Ghana’s Asian Alliance 21st October 2010 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site In mid-October, a large, red container ship marked STX Pan Ocean berthed in Tema port and started offloading its cargo of tipper trucks, excavators, bulldozers, forklift trucks and...
GUINEACHINA More contracts as the vote looms 21st October 2010 Despite the impending transition to civil rule, the military regime has signed a mega-contract with the China Hyway Group for housing and roads As political candidates and generals were locked in negotations about the second round of the presidential elections due by the end of October, interim President General Sékouba Ko...
MOZAMBIQUECHINA Building a Chinatown in Catembe 21st October 2010 When Prime Minister Aires Aly and Planning and Development Minister Aiuba Cuereneia met the delegation from China Tong Jian Investment Corporation in late August, they signed a me...
ZIMBABWECHINA Blood diamonds and old soldiers 21st October 2010 The Chiadzwa/Marange alluvial diamond fields remain off limits to Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy. Amid growing reports of Chinese involvement, Min...
GUINEACHINA China Hyway Group’s mines-for-roads deal 21st October 2010 In return for huge investments in housing and roads, the China Hyway Group has asked for several mining permits that would give it access to at least five bauxite deposits: those ...
NIGERIACHINA Spooks, not railways 21st October 2010 Abuja wants to use Chinese export finance to build a spy network with the controversial ZTE company – instead of a railway Security experts reckon that cyber warfare and espionage will be this century’s new battlegrounds. With that in view, Beijing is now considering whether to allow the Nigerian gover...
CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Cooperating with Cohydro 21st October 2010 Korea National Oil Corporation is discussing a potential strategic partnership with the parastatal Congolaise des Hydrocarbures. KNOC President Kang Young-won and Cohydro Chairman ...
MOZAMBIQUECHINA Maputo opens its markets 21st October 2010 If it comes to fruition, China Tong Jian’s multibillion-dollar agreement promises to bring in Mozambique’s largest-ever investment Mozambique has a new Trade and Industry Minister following the sacking on 12 October of Antonio Fernando. President Antonio Guebuza has selected a young economist, Armando Inroga, ...
NIGERIAINDIA India follows China’s lead 21st October 2010 Wherever China goes in Nigeria, India tends not to be too far behind. Chinese contractors may have landed all of the major railway deals in Nigeria (AAC Vol 3 No 4), but Indian man...
AFRICAASIAEMERGING MARKETS Win-win turns to win-lose 21st October 2010 A report by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa* points out that the rise of emerging-market trade and investment may be just as likely to lead to win-lose o...
INDIA Ratan N. Tata 21st October 2010 Chairman, Tata Group Ratan N. Tata is the Chairman of the Tata Group, an industrial conglomerate that began life as the cotton trading company of his great-greatfather, Jamshetji Tata. The Group now ...
JAPAN Seiji Maehara 21st October 2010 Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Japan Known as a ‘China hawk’, Seiji Maehara moved to the Foreign Ministry just as Japan-China relations are at a low. In September, a dispute with China over the Senkaku islands once ag...
CHINA Gong Jianzhong 21st October 2010 China’s Ambassador to Ghana Ghana is among the most stable of China’s African allies but as new emissary Gong Jianzhong will be keeping an eye on recent attacks on Chinese businesses in the port of Tema. In e...
