A Huanqiu opinion article made some comments on the recent African Summit held in Washington DC.
"From August 4 to August 6, the Americans ‘learned the Chinese way’ when they attended an African Summit. This is the first obvious example of the ‘Chinazation’ of American diplomacy. Looking at Obama who sat together with nearly 50 African leaders and government representatives and discussed African-American cooperation, the Chinese people were happy. China has good things and is not afraid that the Americans will learn from it. China does not have a sense of crisis about China’s interests being compromised if Americans strengthen their cooperation with Africa."
"It is President Obama who is a bit stingy. At the Summit he emphasized that ‘we don’t look to Africa simply for its natural resources’ and that ‘we don’t simply want to extract minerals from the ground.’ The media interpreted that he was ‘silently criticizing’ China. What is more, in his exclusive interview with the Economist magazine, he said, ‘The roads (built by China) don’t just lead from the mine to the port to Shanghai.’"
"Americans should no doubt be considered ‘oldies’ in Africa. They have quite a deep influence there. China’s experience in Africa is still young, but this round of Sino-African cooperation has flung the American-African relationship far behind. Sino-African total trade in 2009 exceeded the trade with the U.S. by more than $100 billion and China has become Africa’s largest trading partner. In 2013, the figure jumped to over $200 billion, while, last year, American-African trade shrank to $60 billion from over $100 billion in 2008. It is understandable that Americans are getting worried."
"The rapid development of Sino-African cooperation verified the vitality and future of the bilateral cooperation on an equal footing and also demonstrated the huge potential of the Chinese economy. In contrast, the West’s highbrow way of ‘transformation of Africa’ has become less and less popular in Africa. This is the root cause behind the difference between Sino-African and American-African trade."
Source: People’s Daily, August 7, 2014
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n/2014/0807/c1003-25421033.html