China-Africa ‘reciprocal dimension’ missed

In case anyone missed it, the China-Africa summit in Beijing wound up last weekend, with billions of dollars set to be injected, for better or worse, into a dozen or so African nations. The Australian reported on Monday:

China has pledged to double annual aid to Africa by 2009, provide $6.7 billion in soft loans and credits and train 15,000 African professionals. ...

China also signed trade deals with 10 African nations worth $2.46 billion, with the biggest contract involving aluminium production in Egypt. ...

China is cancelling its debts due from the least developed countries in Africa, setting up a $6.7 billion fund to subsidise Chinese companies’ investments in Africa, and raising from 190 to 440 the items that Africa’s least developed countries can export to China tariff-free.

Interestingly, the Murdoch flagship missed the following ... um ... reciprocal dimension of all this wheeling and dealing, as reported in The Age:

China has spelled out the political price of its huge new investment in Africa, reminding the leaders of 48 of the continent’s nations of the importance it places on reunification with Taiwan.

President Hu made it clear that China was counting on the recipients of its largesse to reciprocate with diplomatic support.

At the opening ceremony of the Forum of China Africa Co-operation, he said: “In all these years, China has firmly supported Africa in winning liberation and pursuing development. ... We in China will not forget Africa’s full support for restoring the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations.”

A quid pro quo should come as no surprise. What’s surprising is that The Australian’s China correspondent missed that rather significant dimension of the story.

Anyway, voting patterns in multilateral fora with regard to China’s sphere of interests should be interesting over the next few years.