Tomdispatch.com: China, America, and a New Cold War in Africa?

From: Berhane Habtemariam <Berhane.Habtemariam_at_gmx.de_at_dehai.org>
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:58:42 +0200

China, America, and a New Cold War in Africa?
Is the Conflict in South Sudan the Opening Salvo in the Battle for a
Continent?

* By Nick Turse
<http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/reporters/nickturse/>
* TomDispatch <http://www.tomdispatch.com/>
* September 25, 2014

Juba, South Sudan-Is this country the first hot battlefield in a new cold
war? Is the conflict tearing this new nation apart actually a proxy fight
between the world's two top economic and military powers? That's the way
South Sudan's Information Minister
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZOz60Kc9gdc> Michael
Makuei Lueth tells it. After "midwifing" South Sudan into existence with
billions of dollars in assistance, aid, infrastructure projects, and
military support, the US has
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201405161485.html> watched China emerge as the
major beneficiary of South Sudan's oil reserves. As a result, Makuei claims,
<http://nyamile.com/2014/05/16/south-sudan-america-wants-our-oil-support-reb
els-makuei/> the US and other
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201405161485.html> Western powers have
<http://nyamile.com/2014/05/16/south-sudan-america-wants-our-oil-support-reb
els-makuei/> backed former vice president Riek Machar and his rebel forces
in an effort to overthrow the country's president, Salva Kiir. China, for
its part, has played a conspicuous double game. Beijing has
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-08/norinco-sells-south-sudan-arms-as-
chinese-government-talks-peace.html> lined up behind Kiir, even as it
publicly
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/uk-southsudan-china-insight-idUKKB
N0EG01Z20140605> pushes both sides to find a diplomatic solution to a
simmering civil war. It is sending peacekeepers as part of the U.N. mission
even as it also <http://allafrica.com/stories/201407180950.html> arms
Kiir's forces with tens of millions of dollars worth of new weapons.

While experts dismiss Makuei's scenario - "farfetched" is how one analyst
puts it - there are average South Sudanese who also believe that Washington
supports the rebels. The US certainly did press Kiir's government to make
concessions, as his supporters are quick to remind anyone willing to listen,
pushing it to
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/30/us-al-southsudan-unrest-usa-idUSB
REA0T11D20140130> release senior political figures detained as coup plotters
shortly after fighting broke out in late 2013. America, they say, cared more
about a handful of elites sitting in jail than all the South Sudanese
suffering in a civil war that has now
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/south-sudan-peace-talks-reach-apparent-break
through-1402473616> claimed more than 10,000 lives,
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27770340> resulted in mass rapes,
displaced more than
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-africa-28209014
&ei=vKnLU6umLPGu7Aakp4CYBQ&usg=AFQjCNFPRyCIrqblsnH--yQNknMJP9m2yQ&sig2=7UBZR
m6djmgsJ76ClBtVnw&bvm=bv.7119> 1.5 million people (around half of them
<http://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/unicef-south-sudan-humanitarian-sit
uation-report-25-reporting-period-27-may-03> children), and
<http://www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/videos/video-detail/en/c/237054/>
pushed the country to the very brink of
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201406070014.html> famine. Opponents of Kiir
are, however, quick to mention the significant quantities of Chinese
weaponry <http://allafrica.com/stories/201407180950.html> flooding into the
country. They ask why the United States hasn't put pressure on a president
they no longer see as legitimate.

While
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/23/the-usa-v-china-in-south-sudan/> few
outside South Sudan would ascribe to Makuei's notion of a direct East-West
proxy war here, his conspiracy theory should, at least, serve as a reminder
that US and Chinese interests are at play in this war-torn nation and across
Africa as a whole - and that Africans are taking note. Almost anywhere you
look on the continent, you can now find evidence of both the American and
the Chinese presence, although they take quite different forms. The Chinese
are pursuing a ruthlessly pragmatic economic power-projection strategy with
an emphasis on targeted multilateral interventions in African conflicts. US
policy, in contrast, appears both more muddled and more military-centric,
with a heavy focus on counterterrorism efforts meant to bolster amorphous
strategic interests.

For the last decade, China has used "soft power" -
<http://www.focac.org/eng/zt/1_1/t1154202.htm> aid, trade, and
infrastructure projects - to make major inroads on the continent. In the
process, it has set itself up as the dominant foreign player here. The US,
on the other hand, increasingly confronts Africa as a "
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> battlefield" or "
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/magazine/can-general-linders-special-oper
ations-forces-stop-the-next-terrorist-threat.html?_r=0> battleground" or "
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> war" in the words of the men
running its operations. In recent years, there has been a substantial surge
in US
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_non-stop_ops_in_africa> military activities of every sort, including the
setting up of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> military outposts and both
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175831/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_pentago
n%2C_libya%2C_and_tomorrow%27s_blowback_today> direct and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_american_prox
y_wars_in_africa> proxy interventions. These two approaches have produced
starkly contrasting results for the powers involved and the rising nations
of the continent. Which one triumphs may have profound implications for all
parties in the years ahead. The differences are, perhaps, nowhere as stark
as in the world's newest nation, South Sudan.

Starting in the 1980s, the efforts of an eclectic, bipartisan collection of
American supporters -
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-south-sudan-midwives-idUSBRE86A
0GC20120711> Washington activists,
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-south-sudan-midwives-idUSBRE86A
0GC20120711> evangelical Christians, influential Congressional
representatives, <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14050504>
celebrities, a rising
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-south-sudan-midwives-idUSBRE86A
0GC20120711> State Department star, a presidential administration focused on
regime change and nation-building, and another that picked up the mantle -
helped bring South Sudan into existence. "
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-obama-is-losing-south-sudan/2014
/01/10/4b8a046e-78d7-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html> Midwife" was the
word then-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry chose
to describe the process.

In recent years, no country in Africa has received as much
<https://opencrs.com/document/R42774/2012-10-05/download/1005/>
Congressional attention. And on July 9, 2011, South Sudan's Independence
Day, President Barack Obama released a
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/09/statement-president-b
arack-obama-recognition-republic-south-sudan> stirring statement. "I am
confident that the bonds of friendship between South Sudan and the United
States will only deepen in the years to come. As Southern Sudanese undertake
the hard work of building their new country, the United States pledges our
partnership as they seek the security, development, and responsive
governance that can fulfill their aspirations and respect their human
rights."

As the new nation broke away from Sudan after decades of bloody civil war,
the US
<http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/speeches/remarks-usaid-deputy-adminis
trator-donald-k-steinberg-congressional-black> poured in
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/us/politics/us-is-facing-hard-choices-in-
south-sudan.html?_r=0> billions of dollars in
<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/171718.htm> humanitarian aid and
<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/13/141703/in-south-sudans-violence-us-ba
cked.html> pumped in hundreds of
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fas.org%2Fsgp%2Fcrs%2Frow%2FR43344.pdf
&ei=EICQU4a2CrLQsQT5_YDoDw&usg=AFQjCNGSn8hE0YiE1-bkK9SRBycrxWGFYA&bvm=bv.682
35269,d.cWc> millions of dollars of military and security assistance. It
also
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/south-sudan-conflict-us-john-k
erry> invested heavily in governmental institutions, and
<http://www.usaid.gov/south-sudan/economic-growth-and-trade> built
infrastructure (constructing or repairing roads and bridges). It sent
military instructors to
<http://www.gettyimages.no/detail/news-photo/special-forces-soldier-instruct
s-south-sudanese-commandos-news-photo/480421459> train the country's armed
forces and advisors to
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230346500457932424026945
9308> mentor government officials. It helped to
<http://translations.state.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/12/20111213174634su
0.1356121.html> beef up the education sector, worked to
<http://translations.state.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/12/20111213174634su
0.1356121.html> facilitate economic development and
<http://www.opic.gov/press-releases/2013/opic-south-sudan-sign-investment-ag
reement> American investment, and
<http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE82P0AT20120326?feedType=RSS&fe
edName=topNews&sp=true> opened the US market to duty-free South Sudanese
imports.

The new nation, it was hoped, would bolster US national security interests
by injecting a heavy dose of democracy into the heart of Africa, while
promoting political stability and good governance. Specifically, it was to
serve as a democratic bulwark against Sudan and its president, Omar
al-Bashir, who had once
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230346500457932424026945
9308> harbored Osama bin Laden and is wanted by the International Criminal
Court for crimes against humanity in that country's Darfur region.

When South Sudan broke away, it took much of Sudan's oil wealth with it,
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230346500457932424026945
9308> becoming sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer behind
Nigeria and Angola. In taking those resources out of Bashir's hands, it
offered the promise of more energy stability in Africa. It was even expected
to serve Washington's military aims - and soon, the US began
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kony-2013-us-quietly-
intensifies-effort-to-help-african-troops-capture-infamous-warlord/2013/10/2
8/74db9720-3cb3-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html> employing South Sudanese
troops as proxies in a quest to destroy Joseph Kony and his murderous Lord's
Resistance Army.

That was the dream, at least. But like Washington's regime change and
nation-building projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, things soon started going
very, very wrong. Today, South Sudan's armed forces are little more than a
collection of
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/01/07/preventing-civil-war-in-sou
th-sudan/south-sudan-needs-a-more-robust-international-commitment> competing
militias that have <http://library.fundforpeace.org/fsi14-southsudan>
fractured along ethnic lines and turned on each other. The country's
<http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-parliament-grinds-to-a-halt/1944
847.html> political institutions and
<http://www.catholic.org/news/international/africa/story.php?id=56154>
economy are in shambles, its oil production (which accounts for about 90
percent of government revenue) is crippled,
<http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ics/2013/204855.htm> corruption goes
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/12/south-sudan-declares-itse
lf-open-business-2013121163038495720.html> unchecked, towns have been
<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/s-sudan-rebels-say-uganda-mercenaries-hurt-p
eace> looted and
<http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-malakal-deserted-destroyed-fight
ing-oxfam/1858905.html> leveled during recent fighting, the nation is mired
in a massive humanitarian crisis, famine looms, and inter-ethnic relations
may have been irreparably damaged.

During the years when America was helping bring South Sudan into existence,
another world power also took an interest in the country - and a very
different tack when it came to its development. After having
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155> invested a reported $20
billion in Sudan - a country long on the US
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/02/us-usa-sudan-sanctions-idUSBRE8A1
19Q20121102> sanctions blacklist - China watched as the new nation of South
Sudan
<http://www.ibtimes.com/china-middle-south-sudans-biggest-oil-importer-learn
s-wield-its-clout-1568133> claimed about 75% of its oil fields. In 2012,
newly inaugurated South Sudanese President Salva Kiir traveled to China
where he sipped champagne with then-President
<http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zzjg_663340/xybfs_663590/xwlb_66
3592/t926468.shtml> Hu Jintao and reportedly
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155> secured a pledge of $8
billion to build up his country's infrastructure and support its oil sector.
(A top Chinese envoy later dismissed reports of such a sum, but hinted that
China was willing to make
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-china-sudan-south-idUSBRE92D0J
D20130314> even greater investments in the country if it achieved a lasting
peace with its northern neighbor.)

Two years later, the China National Petroleum Corporation, with a
<http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ur2KZkFrxvMJ:thecable.
foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/15/un_peacekeepers_to_protect_chinas_oil_int
erests_in_south_sudan+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us> 40 percent stake,
<http://www.ibtimes.com/china-middle-south-sudans-biggest-oil-importer-learn
s-wield-its-clout-1568133> is now the largest shareholder in the Greater
Nile Petroleum Operating Company, the top oil consortium in South Sudan. It
also
<http://www.trust.org/item/?map=factbox-sudan-and-south-sudan-oil-payment-di
spute> leads another important consortium, the Greater Pioneer Operating
Company. During the first 10 months of 2013, China
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155> imported nearly 14 million
barrels of oil from South Sudan. That adds up to about
<http://www.ibtimes.com/china-middle-south-sudans-biggest-oil-importer-learn
s-wield-its-clout-1568133> 77 percent of the country's crude oil output and
twice as much as China <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155>
imports from energy-rich Nigeria. While South Sudanese oil accounts for only
about
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/uk-southsudan-china-insight-idUKKB
N0EG01Z20140605> 5 percent of China's total petroleum imports, the country
has nonetheless provided Beijing with a new African partner. This was
especially useful as a US and NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 created
chaotic conditions, causing China to
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155> suffer heavy losses ($20
billion according to Chinese sources) in various energy and other projects
in that country.

"At the end of the day, China's main interest is stability so that they can
function on a commercial basis. And to achieve that stability they've had to
get more involved on the political side," says Cameron Hudson, director for
African affairs on the staff of the National Security Council at the White
House from 2005 to 2009. "They have a very large presence in Juba and are
doing a lot of business beyond the oil sector."

In fact, just days before South Sudan plunged into civil war late last year,
the deep-pocketed Export-Import Bank of China was reportedly preparing to
offer the country $2 billion in loans and credit to build six key roads -
<http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-south-sudan-economy-20140220-story.
html> including a 1,500-mile highway to link the capital, Juba, with Sudan's
main port - crucial bridges across the Nile River, schools and hospitals in
every county, a hydropower plant, a government conference center, and a
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/03/interactive-china-afri
can-spending-spree-2014320121349799136.html> staple of Chinese construction
schemes in Africa, a stadium.

Recently, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140701/china-sou
th-sudan-further-reciprocal-cooperation> promised to expand cooperation with
South Sudan in trade, agriculture, construction of infrastructure, and
energy. Meanwhile, a separate $158 million deal to repair and
<http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-juba-international-airport-renov
ation-china-corruption/1952556.html> expand the airport in Juba, financed by
China's Export-Import Bank and carried out by a Chinese firm, was announced.
In addition, China has just
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-08/norinco-sells-south-sudan-arms-as-
chinese-government-talks-peace.html> shipped nearly $40 million in arms -
millions of rounds of ammunition, thousands of automatic rifles and grenade
launchers, and hundreds of machine guns and pistols - to Salva Kiir's armed
forces.

China's interest in South Sudan is indicative of its relations with the
continent as a whole. Beijing has long
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brookings.edu%2F%7E%2Fmedia%2Fresearch
%2Ffiles%2Fpapers%2F2014%2F04%2Fafrica-china-policy-sun%2Fafrica-in-china-we
b_cmg7.pdf&ei=nGWjU8WABcrnsAS5_> looked to Africa for diplomatic cooperation
in the international arena and, with the continent accounting for more than
25% of the votes in the General Assembly of the United Nations, relied on it
for political support. More recently, economics has become the paramount
factor in the growing relationship between the rising Asian power and the
continent.

Hungry for energy reserves, minerals, and other raw materials to fuel its
domestic growth, China's Export-Import Bank and other state-controlled
entities regularly offer financing for railroads, highways, and other
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/03/interactive-china-afri
can-spending-spree-2014320121349799136.html> major infrastructure projects,
often tied to the use of Chinese companies and workers. In exchange, China
expects long-term supplies of needed natural resources. Such relationships
have exploded in the new century with its African trade jumping from $10
billion to an estimated $200 billion, which far exceeds that of the United
States or any European country. It has now been Africa's
<http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/article/newsrelease/significantnews/201405/201
40500578811.shtml> largest trading partner for the last five years and
boasts of having struck $400 billion worth of deals in African construction
projects which have already yielded almost 1,400 miles of railroad track and
nearly 2,200 miles of highways.


Resources traded for infrastructure are, however, just one facet of China's
expanding economic relationship with Africa. Looking down the road, Beijing
increasingly sees the continent as a market for its manufacturing products.
While the West
<http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/01/30/chapter-2-aging-in-the-u-s-and-other-co
untries-2010-to-2050/> ages and
<http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/01/16/china-now-owns-record-
1317t-us-government-debt/> sinks deeper into
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142412788732335320457812737403908
7636> debt, Africa is getting younger and growing at an exponential pace.
Its population is, according to demographers, poised to double by the middle
of the century, jumping to as many as 3.5 billion - larger than China and
India combined - with working-age people far outnumbering the elderly and
children.

With its ability to produce goods at low prices, China is betting on being a
major supplier of a growing African market when it comes to food, clothes,
appliances, and other consumer goods. As Howard French, author of
<http://www.npr.org/books/titles/316299150/chinas-second-continent-how-a-mil
lion-migrants-are-building-a-new-empire-in-afri> China's Second Continent
notes, "a variety of economic indicators show that the fortunes of large
numbers of Africans are improving dramatically and will likely continue to
do so over the next decade or two, only faster." According to the
International Monetary Fund, 10 of the 20 economies projected to grow
fastest from 2013-2017 are located in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, the
World Bank attributed 60% of Africa's economic growth to consumer spending.
Beijing may even fuel this rise further by
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brookings.edu%2F%7E%2Fmedia%2Fresearch
%2Ffiles%2Fpapers%2F2014%2F04%2Fafrica-china-policy-sun%2Fafrica-in-china-we
b_cmg7.pdf&ei=nGWjU8WABcrnsAS5_> relocating low-skilled, labor-intensive
jobs to that continent as it develops more skilled manufacturing and
high-tech industries at home.

One Chinese export integral to Beijing's dealings with Africa has, however,
largely escaped notice. In the space of a decade, as French points out, one
million or more Chinese have emigrated to Africa, buying up land,
establishing businesses, plying just about every conceivable trade from
medicine to farming to prostitution. These expats are altering the
fundamentals of cultural and economic exchange across the continent and
creating something wholly new. "For all of China's denials that its overseas
ambitions could be compared to those of Europeans or Americans,"
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-chinas-second-continent-by-howar
d-w-french-1402089810> writes French, ".what I was witnessing in Africa is
the higgledy-piggledy cobbling together of a new Chinese realm of interest.
Here were the beginnings of a new empire."

This mass influx of Chinese pioneers has bred resentment in some quarters,
as have heavy-handed tactics by Chinese companies that often ignore local
labor laws and environmental regulations, freeze out local workers, mistreat
them, or pay them exceptionally low wages. This, in turn, has led to
instances of violence against Africa's Chinese, as has Beijing's support for
unpopular and repressive governments on the continent. Such threats to the
safety of Chinese citizens and business interests, as well as general
political instability and armed conflicts - from Libya to South Sudan - have
given China still another reason to build-up its presence.

Traditionally, Beijing has adhered to a
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/24/chinas_african_adventure>
non-interference, " <http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593398> no strings attached"
foreign policy - meaning no requirements on partner nations in terms of
transparency, corruption, environmental protection, human rights, or good
governance - and, as opposed to the United States, has
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brookings.edu%2F%7E%2Fmedia%2Fresearch
%2Ffiles%2Fpapers%2F2014%2F04%2Fafrica-china-policy-sun%2Fafrica-in-china-we
b_cmg7.pdf&ei=nGWjU8WABcrnsAS5_> avoided overseas military inventions. While
it has long contributed to U.N. peacekeeping operations - the only kind of
foreign intervention Beijing considers legitimate - China has generally
operated far from the front lines. But things are subtly shifting on this
score.

In 2011, after the US-backed revolution in Libya
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brookings.edu%2F%7E%2Fmedia%2Fresearch
%2Ffiles%2Fpapers%2F2014%2F04%2Fafrica-china-policy-sun%2Fafrica-in-china-we
b_cmg7.pdf&ei=nGWjU8WABcrnsAS5_> imperiled 30,000 Chinese living there, the
People's Liberation Army coordinated air and sea assets in the largest
evacuation mission in its history. And as the war in Libya destabilized
neighboring Mali and a US-trained officer overthrew that country's elected
president, China sent combat troops - for the first time in its history - to
join U.N. forces in a bid to
<http://eng.mod.gov.cn/DefenseNews/2014-06/12/content_4515933.htm> stabilize
a nation that the US had spent a decade bolstering through counterterrorism
funding.

Then, when US-backed South Sudan slid into civil war late last year - and
300 Chinese workers had to be evacuated - Beijing departed from the
hands-off approach it had taken only a few years earlier with Sudan, ramped
up
<http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-china-sends-envoy-south-sudan-push-peace
-talks/1818388.html> diplomatic efforts and
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/24/chinas_african_adventure>
pushed hard for
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/us-southsudan-china-insight-idUSK
BN0EG00320140605> peace talks. "This is something new for us,"
<http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20140308/104483.shtml> said China's
special envoy to Africa, Zhong Jianhua. This was, he noted, the beginning of
a "new chapter" in policies by which China would now "do more [in terms of]
peace and security for this continent."

More recently, Beijing managed to broker an unprecedented arrangement to
expand the mandate of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan. In addition to
"protection of civilians, monitoring and investigating human rights abuses,
and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance,"
<http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ur2KZkFrxvMJ:thecable.
foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/15/un_peacekeepers_to_protect_chinas_oil_int
erests_in_south_sudan+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us> according to Foreign
Policy, "Beijing quietly secured a deal that will put the U.N.'s famed blue
helmets to work protecting workers in South Sudan's oil installations, where
China has invested billions of dollars." Although protecting the oil fields
is akin to taking the government's side in a civil war, the US, France, and
Great Britain backed the plan to protect
<http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11414.doc.htm> oil installations
under a U.N. mandate, citing the importance of the energy sector to the
future of the country. In return, China will send an 850-man
<https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/23970233/china-to-send-peacekeeping-batta
lion-to-s-sudan/> infantry battalion to bolster the U.N. mission,
<http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ur2KZkFrxvMJ:thecable.
foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/15/un_peacekeepers_to_protect_chinas_oil_int
erests_in_south_sudan+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us> adding to the
<http://za.china-embassy.org/eng/zgxw/t1114441.htm> 350 military
<http://eng.mod.gov.cn/Photos/2014-05/04/content_4506665.htm> personnel it
already had on the ground here.

When it comes to protecting their infrastructure, "the Chinese have gotten
very good at deploying peacekeeping forces,"
<http://global.fundforpeace.org/staff-ptaft> Patricia Taft, a senior
associate with the Fund for Peace, tells TomDispatch. "The Chinese have, in
East Africa and also West Africa, inserted themselves as a security
presence, mainly to protect their oil interests, their infrastructure, or
whatever economic projects they're deeply invested in."

 <http://www.stimson.org/experts/yun-sun/> Yun Sun, a fellow at the Stimson
Center and an <http://www.brookings.edu/experts/suny> expert on China's
relations with Africa, doesn't see these recent developments as a
militarization of China's mission, but as a symptom of increased investment
in the countries of the continent. "China cares more about security issues
in Africa. due to its own national interests," Sun tells TomDispatch. "It
means China will contribute more to the peace and security issues of the
continent." And it seems that Beijing is now doing so, in part on America's
dime.

US taxpayers, who fund about 27% percent of the cost of United Nations
peacekeeping missions, are now effectively underwriting China's efforts to
protect its oil interests in South Sudan. Washington continues to
<http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/226572.htm> pour aid into that
country - more than $456 million in humanitarian assistance in fiscal year
2014 - while China has
<http://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan-republic/china-donates-200-thousand
-us-dollars-aid-south-sudan> pledged far less in
<http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2014-07/02/content_17637890.htm>
humanitarian relief. Meanwhile, Juba has tied itself ever more tightly to
Chinese energy interests, with plans to
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/south-sudan-borrows-200m-from-oil-
companies-as-war-hits-output.html> borrow more than
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/02/southsudan-budget-idUSL6N0PD42U20
140702> $1 billion from
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230346500457932424026945
9308> oil companies to
<https://radiotamazuj.org/en/article/s-sudan-owes-256-million-chinese-firm-7
8m-dutch> keep the government afloat as it battles the rebels.

 <http://global.fundforpeace.org/staff-ptaft> Taft sees these deals with
largely Chinese firms as both risky for South Sudan's future and potentially
ineffective as well. "It's putting a band-aid on a hemorrhaging artery," she
says. David Deng, research director for the South Sudan Law Society, echoes
this: "We're mortgaging our children's future to fight a pointless war."

South Sudan seems emblematic of a larger trend in the race between
Washington and Beijing in Africa. In 2000, China's trade there passed $10
billion for the first time and has been growing at a 30% clip annually ever
since. Nine years later, China overtook the US to become the continent's
largest trading partner and, by 2012, its trade was nearly double that of
the US - $198.5 billion to $99.8 billion. While the United States recently
<http://blogs.wsj.com/frontiers/2014/07/25/qa-pritzker-and-bloomberg-discuss
-the-u-s-africa-business-forum/> announced that $900 million in unspecified
"deals" with Africa will be unveiled at an upcoming US-Africa Leaders Summit
in Washington, it will nonetheless continue to
<http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/07/24-deeping-tra
de-commercial-ties> trail far behind China in terms of trade on the
continent.

For the Chinese, Africa is El Dorado, a land of opportunity for one million
migrants. For America, it's a collection of "
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/magazine/can-general-linders-special-oper
ations-forces-stop-the-next-terrorist-threat.html?_r=0> ungoverned spaces,"
"
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> austere locations," and failing states
increasingly dominated by local terror groups poised to become global
threats, a danger zone to be militarily managed through special operators
and proxy armies. "In Africa, terrorists, criminal organizations, militias,
corrupt officials, and pirates continue to exploit ungoverned and
under-governed territory on the continent and its surrounding waters,"
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defense.gov%2Fpubs%2F2014_Quadrennial_
Defense_Review.pdf&ei=hZWlU7vKIYqz8AHW9IDYCQ&usg=AFQjCNHrtY8Qh6470DFh318VlYJ
fnOAhxQ&bvm=bv.69411363,d.b2k> reads the Pentagon's 2014 Quadrennial Defense
Review (QDR). "The potential for rapidly developing threats, particularly
in fragile states, including violent public protests and terrorist attacks,
could pose acute challenges to US interests."

"Recent engagements in Somalia and Mali, in which African countries and
regional organizations are working together with international partners in
Europe and the United States, may provide a model for future partnerships,"
adds the QDR. But a look at those poster-child nations for US involvement -
one in East and one in West Africa - instead provides evidence of America's
failings on the continent.

In 2006, the Islamic Court Union (ICU), a loose confederation of indigenous
Islamist groups seeking to impose
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/kenya-westgate-mall-attacks>
order on the failed state of Somalia,
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2006/12/19/seven_questions_war_in_som
alia> defeated the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism, a
US-supported militia, and
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-shabaab-east-africa-idUSBRE84T
0NI20120530> pushed the US-backed warlords out of Mogadishu, the capital. In
response, the United States green-lighted a 2007
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-01-07-ethiopia_x.htm>
invasion of the country by Ethiopia's military and
<http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0F72AA20140702?sp=true>
secretly sent in a small contingent of its own troops (still operating in
Somalia to this day). This succeeded only in splintering the ICU, sending
its moderates into exile, while its hardliners formed a far more extreme
Islamic group, al-Shabab, which became the key Muslim resistance force
against Washington's Ethiopian proxies.

Al-Shabab experienced a great deal of military success before being
<https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-shababs-capabilities-post-westgate>
beaten back by the Ethiopians, troops from a
<http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/7260/transcript-us-policy-in-som
alia--no-direct-support> US-supported Somali transitional
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/24/AR200906240
3495.html> government, and well-armed
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14094632> peacekeepers from the
<http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/05/20130507146938
.html> US-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). These forces
were, from 2009 onward, joined by proxies trained and armed by
<http://www.wired.com/2011/10/new-somalia-attack/> US-ally Kenya, whose own
army
<http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136670/daniel-branch/why-kenya-invad
ed-somalia> invaded the country in 2011. Their
<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/18/130739/wikileaks-us-warned-kenya-agai
nst.html> forces in Somalia, eventually
<http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articles/hoa/articles/newsbriefs/2012/03/09/n
ewsbrief-02> folded into the AMISOM mission, are still
<http://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/kenyas-dilemma-in-somalia-to-withdraw-or
-not-to-withdraw?utm_source=June+25+2014+EN&utm_campaign=7%2F25%2F2014&utm_m
edium=email> deployed there. On the run and outgunned, al-Shabab responded
by
<http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136670/daniel-branch/why-kenya-invad
ed-somalia> threatening to take the war beyond its borders and soon began to
do so.

In other words, what started as a local Islamic group achieving,
<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uac
t=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chathamhouse.org%2Fsites%2Ffiles%2Fc
hathamhouse%2Fpublic%2FResearch%2FAfrica%2Fbpsomalia0407.pdf&ei=NCemU_rZIIaq
yAThq4LQBg&usg=AFQjCNHhqSu8ge> according to a Chatham House report, "the
unthinkable, uniting Mogadishu for the first time in 16 years, and
reestablishing peace and security," quickly became a transnational terror
organization in the wake of the Ethiopian invasion and other acts of
intervention. In 2010, al-Shabab carried out a bomb
<http://world.time.com/2013/09/21/terror-in-nairobi-behind-al-shabaabs-war-w
ith-kenya/> attack in Uganda as a punishment for that country's contribution
to the African Union mission in Somalia. In 2011, it
<http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-grenade-suspect-im-al-shabab-member-132633695.h
tml> launched an escalating series of
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/kenya-hotel-attack-suspected
-alshabaab-militants-kill-48-people-in-mpeketoni-9539402.html> shootings,
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/07/20127182456433169.html>
grenade attacks, and bombings in Kenya. The next year, the formerly
Somalia-centric outfit further internationalized its efforts as one of its
leaders pledged obedience to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. In 2013, the
group carried out a devastating
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/westgate-mall-atta
cks-kenya-terror> attack on the Westgate Mall in Kenya that killed 67.

Earlier this year, al-Shabab extended its reach even further with its
first-ever
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/27/uk-djibouti-attacks-idUSKBN0E72AA
20140527> suicide attack in Djibouti, the tiny Horn of Africa nation that
contributes troops to AMISOM and hosts French troops, a key European
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> proxy force for Washington on the continent, as well as
the only avowed US base in Africa. "The attack was carried out against the
French Crusaders for their complicity in the massacres and persecution of
our Muslim brothers in the Central African Republic and for their active
role in training and equipping the apostate Djiboutian troops in Somalia,"
read an al-Shabab statement that also
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> highlighted a US-backed French military mission in the
Central African Republic.

In the months since, the group has
<http://www.voanews.com/content/eighteen-killed-in-attacks-in-kenya/1951691.
html?utm_source=July+7+2014+EN&utm_campaign=7%2F7%2F2014&utm_medium=email>
repeatedly
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/so
malia/index.html> launched murderous assaults on civilians in Kenya and
continues to
<http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Uganda-beefs-up-security-at-all-border
s/-/2558/2353824/-/u9lch8/-/index.html?utm_source=June+20+2014+EN&utm_campai
gn=620%2F2014&utm_medium=email> threaten Uganda and Burundi, which also
contributes troops to AMISOM, with future attacks. It has even gained
regional affiliates, like
<https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-hijra-al-shababs-affiliate-in-kenya>
Al-Hijra, an underground group accused of recruiting for al-Shabab in Kenya.

After 9/11, on the opposite side of the continent, US programs like the
Pan-Sahel Initiative and the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Partnership,
pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into training and arming the
militaries of Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Nigeria, Algeria, and Tunisia,
again in order to promote regional "stability." While US Special Operations
forces were <http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=27112>
teaching infantry tactics to Malian troops, the Chinese were engaging very
differently with that West African nation. Despite Mali's lack of natural
resources, China constructed a key bridge, a hospital, a stadium, a major
government building, several factories, miles of highways, and a $230
million waterworks project.

The US wasn't, however, left totally out in the cold on the construction
front. The State Department's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), for
example, spent $71.6 million to expand the Bamako Airport. The contract,
however, went to a Chinese firm - as did many MCC contracts across Africa -
because American companies were uninterested in working there despite
guaranteed US financing.

What Washington was trying to build in Mali came crashing down, however,
after the US helped topple Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, causing
that country to collapse into a morass of militia fiefdoms. Nomadic Tuareg
fighters looted the weapons stores of the Gaddafi regime they had previously
served, crossed the border, routed US-backed Malian forces and seized the
northern part of the country. This, in turn, prompted a US-trained officer
to stage a military coup in the Malian capital, Bamako, and oust the
democratically elected president.

Soon after, the Tuareg rebels were muscled aside by heavily-armed Islamist
rebels who began taking over the country. This, in turn, prompted the US to
back a 2013 invasion by French and African forces which
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> arrested the complete collapse of Mali - leaving it in a
permanent state of
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140611/suicide-bomber-kills-fou
r-chadian-un-peacekeepers-mali> occupation and
<http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-french-soldier-dies-in-mali-as-paris-rea
dies-counter-insurgency-plan/1910255.html> low-level insurgency. Meanwhile,
Islamist fighters and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/nick_turse_blowback_central>
Gaddafi's weapons were
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigerian-islamist-militants-retu
rn-from-mali-with-weapons-skills/2013/05/31/d377579e-c628-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4
000a_story.html> scattered across
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/us-nigeria-islamists-insight-idUS
BRE94C04Q20130513> Africa, contributing to greater
<http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2013/09/201398104245877469.htm>
instability in
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigerian-islamist-militants-retu
rn-from-mali-with-weapons-skills/2013/05/31/d377579e-c628-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4
000a_story.html> Nigeria and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/nick_turse_blowback_central> Libya,
as well as
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact
=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Faccelus.thomsonreuters.com%2Fsites%2Fdefau
lt%2Ffiles%2FGRC00406.pdf&ei=AjamU8zSHIunyASvv4G4Dw&usg=AFQjCNGQxJr2EoJyugVZ
W0wIUdpkVVcbUQ&bvm=bv.6941136> increased threat levels in Chad, Burkina
Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. It evidently also spurred an
audacious
<http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/17/world/meast/algeria-who-is-belmoktar/>
revenge attack in Algeria that left more than
<http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/algeria-gas-plant-attack/#igImgId_7360
4> 80 dead and an assault on a French-run uranium mine and a nearby military
base in Niger in which at least 25 people were killed.

In 2000, a report prepared under the auspices of the US Army War College's
Strategic Studies Institute examined the "African security environment."
While it touched on "internal separatist or rebel movements" in "weak
states," as well as non-state actors like militias and "warlord armies,"
there is conspicuously no mention of Islamic extremism or major
transnational terrorist threats. Following the 9/11 attacks, a senior
Pentagon official claimed that the US invasion of Afghanistan might drive
"terrorists" out of that country and into African nations, but when pressed
about actual transnational dangers on that continent, he admitted that even
hardcore Somali militants "really have not engaged in acts of terrorism
outside Somalia."

Despite this, Washington dispatched personnel to Africa in 2002 and began
pouring money into counterterrorism efforts. Since then, the US has steadily
increased its military footprint, its troop levels, and its missions on the
continent - from night raids in Somalia and kidnap operations in Libya to
the construction of a string of bases
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/> devoted to surveillance activities
across the northern tier of Africa.

For all the time spent training proxies, all the propaganda efforts, all the
black ops missions, all the counterterror funds, the results have been
dismal. A glance at the official State Department list of terrorist
organizations indicates that these efforts have been mirrored by the growth
of radical militant groups, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
added in 2004, al-Shabab in 2008, Ansar al-Dine, Boko Haram, Ansaru, and the
al-Mulathamun Battalion in 2013, and Libya's Ansar al-Shari'a in Benghazi,
and Ansar al-Shari'a in Darnah, as well as Ansar al-Shari'a in Tunisia, and
the Egyptian militant group
<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/04/224566.htm> Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis,
all in 2014. And that's hardly a full list. Not included are various
<http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2013/06/2013624102946689517.htm>
terror organizations, rebel forces, separatist movements, armed groups, and
militias
<https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/aqims-threat-to-western-interests-in-the-sah
el> like the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, fighters from the
group formerly known as Seleka and their rivals,
<http://abujavoice.com/coalition-of-terrorists-neo-colonialist-radicalisatio
n-of-the-african-mind-with-religion-web-of-terror-ii/> anti-balaka
militiamen in the Central African Republic, Taureg separatists of Mali's
<http://www.npr.org/2012/04/10/150343027/foreign-policy-the-mess-in-mali>
National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the Congolese Resistance
Patriots, Burundi's
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-24/burundi-rebels-claim-attack-on-arm
y-soldiers-in-congo-kills-nine.html?utm_source=June+25+2014+EN&utm_campaign=
7%2F25%2F2014&utm_medium=email> National Forces of Liberation, and
<http://www.jamestown.org/regions/africa/single/?tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=4180
3&tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=55&cHash=2428ae3fb8f80467a048e6acaa6bf6dc#.U6jfRLHL
WSo> others.

Over these years, as the US has chased terror groups and watched them
proliferate, China has taken another route, devoting its efforts to building
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/opinion/beijing-a-boon-for-africa.html?_r
=0> goodwill through public works and winning over governments through "no
strings attached" policies.

"Our goal is not to counter China; our goal is not to contain China,"
President Obama
<http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/obama-in-philippines-our-goal-is-not-to-cont
ain-china/> said during a trip to Asia earlier this year. In South Sudan, as
in Africa as a whole, America seems increasingly unable to even keep up. "On
certain levels, we can't or won't compete with China," says the Fund for
Peace's Patricia Taft. "China will continue to eclipse us in terms of
economic interests in Africa." The US is, however, still preeminent in the
political sphere and that influence, she says, will continue to trump
anything China can currently offer.

The question is: For how long?

Cameron Hudson, formerly of the National Security Council and now the acting
director of the Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust
Museum, thinks strengthening partnerships with the Chinese could lead to
major dividends for the United States. "They have more skin in the game," he
says of Beijing's relationship with South Sudan. "They have a growing set of
interests there."

Benediste Hoareau, head of political affairs for the
<http://www.easfcom.org/index.php/about-easf/history-and-background> East
African Standby Force - a rapid intervention force in-the-making, consisting
of troops from the region's militaries - expresses similar sentiments. He
believes in the often repeated axiom of finding
<https://blogs.state.gov/stories/2011/08/31/african-solutions-african-proble
ms> African solutions to African problems and says that the foreign powers
should provide the funds and let African forces do the fighting and
peacekeeping in South Sudan.

Hoareau, in fact, sees no need for a contest, new Cold War or otherwise,
between the foreign titans here. There are plenty of opportunities for both
the United States and China in Africa and in South Sudan, he tells
TomDispatch. A rivalry between the two powers can only bring trouble.
"They're elephants," Hoareau says of China and America, "and you know just
who will get trampled."

Posted by <http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/nickturse/> Nick Turse at
8:01am, July 31, 2014.

Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch.com and a fellow at the
Nation Institute. A 2014 Izzy Award winner, he has reported from the Middle
East, Asia, and Africa and his pieces have appeared in the New York Times,
the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175844/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_how_%22bengha
zi%22_birthed_the_new_normal_in_africa/> regularly at TomDispatch. He is the
author most recently of the New York Times bestseller
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> Kill
Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.
Received on Thu Sep 25 2014 - 11:58:42 EDT