Written by Laurence Brahm - Published by South China Morning Post on 04/08/2008

When Beijing joined the World Trade Organisation, the world wondered whether the grouping would change China. Actually, China is changing the WTO, by displacing the concept of foreign diplomacy with a new approach – trade diplomacy. If things get tough with America, dump Boeing and buy Airbus. If the situation turns, dump Airbus, buy Boeing.

Under President Hu Jintao’s administration, the Ministry of Commerce has, in many respects, eclipsed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a vehicle for driving China’s diplomatic relations. According to government insiders, China is forging its own new-found policy of trade diplomacy with gifts of infrastructure in exchange for resources to fuel its insatiable growth machine. In the land of fundamentalist materialism, what cannot be obtained through persuasion can simply be bought.

Some criticise China’s approach as amoral, driven entirely by short-term mercantile interests. Others see it as farsighted and practical, building bridges with long-term trade and forging sustainable global economic symbiosis.

And some diplomats and scholars see it as a refreshing alternative to the Washington-Consensus approaches of: aid with conditions; leveraging political morality to grab resource concessions; regime change; or, failing these, brute unilateral force. Others view it as neocolonialism that leaves people in many developing countries suffering under hideous regimes propped up by China’s resources purchases.

Klaus Ebermann, the European Union ambassador to Egypt, sees China’s diplomacy of trade coupled with unconditional aid to Africa as a fresh and practical approach. “In dealing with Africa, I think both Europe and China are beginning to realise that there is more we share in our respective approaches than used to be the case,” he said. “The more China is present in Africa, the more it takes on responsibilities to protect its people abroad, its investment, its interests. Good governance, security, stability and rule of law have nothing to do with ‘ideologically driven foreign policy’. They are expressions of common sense shared by the international community.”

But not everyone in the Islamic-African world sees Beijing as altruistic. Reza Aslan, one of America’s leading Islamic scholars and an author said: “China is creating a post-colonial relationship with the rest of world, and it is almost as insidious as the European colonialists as it involves [the] rampaging of natural resources for economic benefit for the elite of that land.”

Dr Ebermann differs in his assessment of the type of mutually beneficial arrangements China is forging with other countries seeking to follow its development model. “Africa is an emerging economic and political partner to be reckoned with and will judge fairness of treatment eye to eye, with increasing assertiveness,” he said. “The 2007 EU Africa summit in Lisbon was instrumental in sharpening our own minds in this high-profile partnership, and China has done likewise.”

Professor Aslan, however, views such relationships with cynicism. “China sits back and creates economic relationships with companies in these agricultural lands and manages to withdraw all the resources they need without forcing any kind of restrictions or conditions,” he said.

“They [African nations receiving Chinese support] don’t have to change their behaviour. They don’t have to do anything to continue this economic business with China as long as the business relationship is in place.

“The most obvious example is Sudan. It’s hard for the rest of the world to press Sudan on Dafur for a solution without China, which will not do anything to disrupt the flow of oil. In the postcolonial world, you can colonise other people without leaving your home or office. You simply empower the elite in a colonized country to do the work for you. As long as resources flow, everybody is OK.”

Laurence Brahm is a global activist, international mediator, political columnist and author. He is the leading advocate of a fresh development paradigm - The Himalayan Consensus - an innovative approach to development.

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