Reports on Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa describe her as warning African leaders about co-operation with countries that want to exploit the continent's resources. In the pious and slightly smug tone that people in Africa β and, indeed, the rest of the developing world β are only too used to hearing from North Atlantic leaders, Clinton apparently went on to say the US would stand up for democracy and universal human rights "even when it might be easier or more profitable to look the other way, to keep the resources flowing β¦ Not every partner makes that choice, but we do and we will.
The subtext was all too clear, and the Chinese government was predictably swift to react. China's official news agency, Xinhua, said the statements were part of a hidden agenda "aimed at least partly at discrediting China's engagement with the continent and curbing China's influence there". Even non-official, non-Chinese observers can be forgiven more than a twinge of scepticism. Leaving aside for a moment the morally superior tenor of the US secretary of state's speech, how true are her statements, especially coming from the representative of a country that has systematically exploited global resources for the better part of the past century, and supported dictatorships in that enterprise?
And these are just a few. Even Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya basked for a time in western approval, as long as they made their oil resources available and opened up investment opportunities for western powers.
Even if we forget about past histories of neocolonialism many would argue are no longer relevant, how accurately does Clinton's sanctimonious assertion reflect the nature of current US and European involvement in economic relations with most developing countries?
The common discourse in the northern media β and increasingly evident in the public statements of leaders such as Clinton β is of how China and to a lesser extent, India is intent on gobbling up the natural resources of other developing countries, and of how it is willing to go to any lengths including friendship with distasteful regimes to do so.
