Global media has recently reported on several negative incidents emerging from Chinese enterprises investing in Africa. Li Anshan, Director of the Center for African Studies at Peking University, noted in a commentary written for ChinAfrica that the incidents, on the one hand, reminded Chinese business people in Africa to improve their approach to business and respect local customs, laws and regulations. On the other hand, Western media usually looked at incidents involving China with preconceived ideas and tended to focus on negative in their reporting. Excerpts of his commentary follow:
Over the past months, incidents damaging Sino-African relations occurred in some African countries, attracting extensive coverage by international media. When dealing with these incidents, African authorities appeared to be more positive in safeguarding their national interests, as seen in Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Angola.
To protect local jobs and some industries, Nigerian authorities arrested some Chinese who were doing business reserved for locals on May 22, 2012. They also carried out quota controls on foreign employees, stipulating that foreigners were qualified to conduct business in Nigeria only within the quota. Nearly 100 Chinese were arrested in Kano and Lagos. The incident was eventually resolved after 80 of the arrested Chinese were released and those whose visas expired repatriated.
On the same day, 41 Chinese nationals were detained for allegedly mining gold illegally in Ghana. Although the Chinese Embassy in Ghana warned Chinese to do business in conformity to local laws and regulations, some miners still worked there with no legitimate work visas or residence permits. After negotiation, Ghana police agreed to release these Chinese miners on bail.
Malawi welcomed foreign investment across the nation but restricted retailers only to cities, to promote job protection and keeping small-scale businesses from foreign trade competition. Therefore, Chinese retailers in rural Malawi were told to move back to cities like Lilongwe and Blantyre before June 30, 2012. The country also notified the Chinese Government to ask Chinese traders to leave rural areas and to restate local laws to those who were not aware of them.
And on August 4 this year, one Chinese was killed and two others injured in labor clashes at Collum Coal Mining Industries Ltd. in Sinazongwe, Southern Province of Zambia. Local police arrested 12 suspects on August 7 and sent them to the court the next day. The incident was blown up by Western media.
What can we see from these incidents? First, the existence of Chinese traders in Africa undercut local people's jobs to some extent and thus causes discontent. Second, the incidents partly resulted from Chinese people's failure to abide by local laws and regulations.
The reason why Chinese nationals were arrested in Nigeria was mainly that they traded in forbidden businesses. And those mining gold in Ghana were illegal as they have no work visas or residence permits and their businesses damaged local environment. If Chinese nationals followed these countries' laws, the incidents would never have happened. Although Chinese embassies in these countries initiated many campaigns to educate Chinese businesspersons with local customs and laws, there was still ongoing inappropriate behavior by Chinese going into Africa to seek their fortunes.
The incidents warned China that it should take immediate measures to correct wrongdoings of some Chinese businesspersons to avoid more trouble.
Noticeably, the way Western media has covered these incidents left much food for thought. Recent labor disputes in Africa triggered widespread discussion among international scholars on African studies. One example is the incident of the Chinese killed in Collum Coal Mine in Zambia, which should not be totally blamed on China. Zambia took instant measures to safeguard the integrity and authority of its law. But Western media overstated Chinese enterprises' fault via extensive coverage, implying the major responsibility was on China. Admittedly Chinese enterprises didn't give enough back to local society, but as stated by Dambisa Moyo, a well-known Zambian economist and the author of Dead Aid, they indeed promoted the economic development of Zambia.
In contrast, a recent clash of mine workers demanding wage increase at Lonmin mine in South Africa, where 34 miners were killed and 78 were injured by police gunfire, merited little attention in Western media in comparison to the Zambian incident. As Lonmin is a British company, are British media covering news in a biased way? Are they reporting in such a way intentionally because of prejudices against China? If China was the concerned party in the incident in South Africa, how would the British media report it? These questions tell the world Western media are not objective or unbiased, as they claim to be, but are greatly influenced by ideology and take political factors into consideration when reporting or commenting news.
