Will China deliver to Africa where Europe failed?
By Peter Foster World: August 28th, 2009
Telegraph, UK

I found myself interviewing a senior analyst (who shall have to remain nameless in this context) at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and talked turn to China’s policies in Africa.

“China’s policy on Africa is very pragmatic, which is why it is so successful, because it starts by improving people’s lives rather than asking those country’s to hold an election,” he said, “It’s a policy of non-interference in other countries affairs.”

I couldn’t help myself from laughing and - to his credit when I said words to the effect of ‘come off it’- he laughed too, unable to hold a straight face against the official line.

The exchange set me thinking about a book I’ve just finished reading called ‘China Safari: on the trail of Beijing’s expansion in Africa’ by two French journalists who put in two years of serious legwork to see for ....

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