My Take | How China goes toe to toe with the West and softly-softly with the rest
Beijing rarely claims altruism. It always wants something from you, but most of the time, its approach is pragmatic, respectful and usually beneficial
The late president of Namibia Hage Geingob once lectured Norbert Lammert, the former president of the German parliament, about China’s pragmatic foreign aid and business approaches in contrast to Western arrogance and dominance, in a video clip that went viral.
“Every time a Westerner comes, it’s all about the Chinese,” he said. “Why does it become your problem, heh! It looks like it’s more a European problem than our problem. You feel sorry for us? We will handle our own country …”
Germany, of course, once colonised Namibia and committed its first modern genocide there; a dress rehearsal, you might say.
The common narrative about Western aid and financial deals is that they promote democracy and free trade, and help clean up corruption; they are offered out of goodness and light. The Chinese, however, try to spread authoritarianism and corruption, and rip off developing countries by laying debt traps.
The reality is rather different. The neoliberal agenda of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank is well documented; likewise the exploitative and invasive deals practised by Western private banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions.
These usually entail direct intrusions – so-called conditionalities – into the operations of sovereign countries, including forcing them to open their economies to foreigners and curtailing their abilities to sustain domestic social welfare and other government services.