The Fat Ones like to hang out at the Luna restaurant and casino (owned by Obiang's wife), as well as the gaudy new 36-room Hotel Paraiso (owned by Obiang's brother, the minister of national security, whose nickname means the "Guiding Spirit"). At the Paraiso, where a grim-faced waiter with desperate eyes and rotting teeth served me lunch, the marble lobby features disco-era decor and a gigantic painting of two people frolicking on a perfect beach -- the only happy scene I saw during my stay. It's a cozy little neighborhood: The Paraiso is next door to the U.S. Embassy, which is across the street from a posh residence owned by one of the president's sons, which is catty-corner to the ExxonMobil complex. The only people I saw on the street were two Chinese men playing a desultory game of badminton.
With the Beijing Olympics bearing down fast, everyone from George W. Bush to Mia Farrow seems to be seizing the opportunity to bash China for doing big business in Sudan, where since 2003, government-backed militias have killed more than 400,000 people and displaced an estimated 2.5 million. And it's true that China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports, while selling Khartoum weapons and defending it in the UN Security Council. But you don't hear any complaints in Washington or Hollywood about China's growing role in Equatorial Guinea. Nor will you.
My first discovery on Bioko Island (E.G. includes a bit of the mainland as well as Bioko, where Malabo is located) was that no American diplomat would see me, and the U.S. Embassy eventually stopped returning my calls. That almost never happens to American reporters in hazardous countries, let alone a one-horse town like Malabo (population: 96,000). But it soon became clear that my presence was more of an embarrassment to American interests than to E.G.'s leaders, who, with each passing year, seem to care less about what the rest of the world thinks of them.
Of course, until ExxonMobil discovered substantial oil there scarcely a decade ago, no one did care what happened in this diseased scrap of jungle, the only former Spanish colony in sub-Saharan Africa. But while E.G. may be a speck of a country, it sits at the heart of the Gulf of Guinea, where it has quietly become the sub-Sahara's third-largest oil exporter after Nigeria and Angola. It is also emerging as one of the most strategically vital places in the world for both the United States and China. As such, it provides a perfect platform for watching how the scramble for finite resources is unfolding. And even a short stay in E.G. reveals that things aren't exactly going our way.
"American companies here don't want people to know it," says a leading Western oil expert who has been working in E.G. for more than a decade, "but they are shitting about China." China is systematically challenging the American oil giants here -- locking in exploration or supply contracts, winning rights to new oil fields, doing massive infrastructure development, even stepping up military supplies. (Not to be outdone, a private U.S. security firm won a contract last year -- approved by the Pentagon -- to train E.G.'s army and Presidential Guard. With so much U.S. investment on the ground, keeping Obiang well protected is apparently essential.) America remains E.G.'s dominant foreign investor by far, with $7 billion in cumulative direct investments over the past decade, and with ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, and Marathon Oil leading the way. But if recent statistics are reliable, China has surpassed the United States as E.G.'s biggest trading partner, purchasing more than $2.5 billion of its oil a year. One morning at my hotel, I came down to find a huddle of dozens of Chinese oil explorers from state-owned CNOOC in the lobby, exuberant and ready for action. One confided to me that there were already thousands of Chinese in E.G., mostly in the construction sector. "We're just getting started," he added with a broad smile.
I had spent two months trying to set up a meeting with E.G.'s energy ministry prior to my arrival, but received no response. I was hoping for a tour of the natural-gas operations of Marathon, one of America's most socially responsible energy companies. Unfortunately, Marathon wouldn't even let its executives meet me in E.G. without the local government's blessing, and that never came. (I was referred instead to a local NGO that carries out antimalarial work for Marathon, a program that in four years has resulted in a 40% reduction in the number of children carrying malarial parasites on Bioko Island.)
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Recent Comments | Total
May 22, 2008 at 2:33am by j luther
A great case for the need of a transforming mode Western Capitalism
June 5, 2008 at 10:31pm by Yele Odofin
I would like to commend the journalistic efforts of this writer, whom I first saw on Lou Dobbs show. Most of Richard Behar's arguments were spot-on; however, these positions were understandably based on North American perception of Africa, as a homogeneous continent of beggars and "Have Nots". Having worked on development policy issues in Nigeria, as well as reviewed a significant number of other African nations’ foreign policies. I would like to stress some points Richard omitted in his piece.
Firstly, African countries have strategic needs and these needs vary quite significantly. There is a growing fear among most African political and academic elites that a strong economic ties with the West would come with a lot of unrealistic strings such as the imposition of liberal social issues all in the name of 'Human Rights', there is also a need to diversify economic, diplomatic and military interests. It’s a no brainier that make these countries less vulnerable to external influence and western sanctions most of these countries have learned from the Zimbabwe experience. Most African countries have actively pursued the so called "South- South" development partnership. Nigeria and other African states, in the last decade have seen a huge bi lateral trade boost with countries like Brazil, Russia, India, and countries in the Middle East.
The reason for the Chinese acceptance by African leaders has little to do with corruption as there are many havens in the Caribbean, some European Territories, South America and Middle East to launder such funds.
Finally, contrary to North American media and Hollywood’s exaggerated depiction of desperate living conditions in places like Western Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and some parts of Congo. I wish to state that as a result of institutional reforms in financial sector, communication and industries, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Ethiopia and many more African countries have witnessed unprecedented increase of their respective middle class populations.
The Chinese are not exploiting Africans; they are simply filling a vacuum.
June 6, 2008 at 1:44pm by Afam Edozie
The United States and the West are no more special to Africa than any other country or group of countries that can provide markets for their goods, capital for their industry and expertise for their development. During the cold war the US understood this. For sure before the emergence of Asia the United States and the West had much more of these things than others and was therefore perceived as more important.
The great mistakes of US foreign policy (if I can call them mistakes) are that the US does not to have a strategy nor to have any 'real' values that they adhere to.
So they foreigners neither look up to them as a moral beacon, nor have they built in strategic advantages that will give them an edge in the future.
As a result the US lost the Shah's Iran and is loosing a host of other countries. And will likely loose much of Africa to China.
The Chinese also have no values worthy of emulation, but they do have an effective strategy.
Their strategy is to
i) use loss leaders (and leverage their low cost base) to get a foot hold into a country (foreigners bearing gifts policy),
ii) Ignore national politics (I see no evil policy),
iii) corrupt the locals (despite Nigeria's reputation as a den of corruption I know many people who don't take bribes, regardless the Chinese still try to bribe them and when they don't accept they try even harder, like they were told to do this in head office, and
iv) invade the country
I live in Nigeria and the Chinese are moving in here at an alarming rate, there are more Chinese living here than any other minority group and they are coming in at every level. Large, Medium and Small sized Chinese companies. As well as sole Chinese traders. They have factories in almost every corner of the country.
They go to the middle of no where, ask the locals for land to build a $10 million processing plant (or something) (why should anyone say no, no one else - not even our own govn - has come to do anything to provide us with jobs) and in any locality outside of the major cities even $1 million investment is a big deal. They then import hundreds of Chinese workers for every job except the most menial and go ahead to treat all their workers (Chinese and Nigerians) like slaves.
They do not transferring skills, they do not train, they do no even die (I kid you not, Chinese do not die in Nigeria), when one dies his death is kept secret, his body is shipped back to China in bulk using refrigerated containers and another Chinese comes to take his job.
The only part of their colonialisation strategy that is failing is that they are not allowed to marry local girls. But I think they have a shortage of girls of their own, so we see an increase in the number of 'secret' wives. How this one will pan out is anyone's guess. But I guess they will get shipped out and we will be left with lots of half Chinese babies.
Few policy makers in Africa understand the Chinese strategy and even fewer of them have the capability of doing anything about it. In 20 years, the Chinese will be a big minority in Africa, with significant participation in industry and economic life.
The west has not had a coherent strategy since neo-colonialism failed in the 70s. The US attempt to establish an African command is laughable and is seen across the whole of Africa as a desperate attempt to introduce a military strategy.
No doubt a charm offensive with promises of dollops of aid will eventually get them the base, and no doubt they will be able to establish a military presence through their planned deep water port in Sao Tome. But as you can see it does not stand up to the Chinese strategy which involves feet on the ground and involvement in the community.
June 9, 2008 at 10:19pm by Aliou Sylla
The US bet on Iraq has yet to bear real fruits whereare China's has paid off many folds. Go figure!