Mutual benefit

Western media have of late paid special attention to the rapidly developing China-Africa relations, especially their cooperation in the energy field. They have made a big fuss about China grabbing Africa's oil resources and pursuing neocolonialism in Africa. Whenever a Chinese leader visited Africa, they tended to label the visit "an energy journey," or "an oil trip."

As a large developing country with a huge population and a lack of resources, China certainly needs to import oil to meet the growing domestic needs. Since it became a net oil importer in 1993, China has intensified efforts to secure energy in the international market by forging mutually beneficial cooperation with many countries, including African countries. China has never denied this, nor is it necessary for it to do so.

In fact, unlike colonialists who plundered Africa for its resources by brutal means, China cooperates with African countries on the basis of their mutual demands and in line with the principle of mutual benefit. The cooperation does not target any third party, either. Take the oil exploration agreement reached when President Hu visited Nigeria in April for example. Nigeria granted licenses to China National Petroleum Corp. to prospect in four oil blocks in the country. Two of them are located in the oil-rich Niger Delta, whereas the other two lie in the harsh, unexplored Lake Chad Basin.

The Chinese company poses no threat to the interests of multinational companies in Nigeria. Instead, it will help Nigeria explore its virgin lands, while diversifying its foreign investment sources. More importantly, China made commitments to invest $4 billion in the construction of related infrastructure and $5 million in purchasing anti-malaria medicine, training Nigerian malaria and bird flu control personnel and conducting technical cooperation in this field.

At present, five major multinational companies dominate Nigerian oil production. Some Nigerian scholars have noted that Western countries are only interested in investing in strategically important oil resources rather than in developing Nigeria's manufacturing industry. While exploiting oil resources, they do not take effective measures to protect the environment, resulting in widespread ecological degradation and worsening the living conditions of local residents. Worse still, the oil companies have long neglected the maintenance of oil pipelines. As a result, farmland polluted by oil leaked from the pipelines became infertile.

Apart from energy cooperation, Chinese companies cooperate with Nigeria in a variety of other areas such as agriculture, infrastructure construction, electricity and telecommunications. The Nigerian Government and China's Guangdong Xinguang International Group signed an agreement worth $2 billion to improve Nigeria's railways early this year. Nigeria earned $500 million from China from its non-oil exports last year.

With regard to China's energy cooperation with Sudan, a hot-button issue in Western media, Chinese companies started to explore for energy resources in Sudan in the mid-1990s. By the end of 2003, their investment totaled $2.7 billion, with which they built 1,506 km of oil pipelines, a crude oil processing plant with a capacity of 2.5 million tons a year and several gas stations.

With the Chinese investment, Sudan turned itself from an oil importing country into an oil exporting country. More importantly, it established its own oil industry consisting of prospecting, exploitation, refining and transportation facilities and sales networks with China's help. In addition, China spent over $20 million in building schools and hospitals for the country.

In contrast, Shell has been engaged in oil exploitation in Nigeria for over 50 years. Nigeria still exports crude oil and imports gasoline. Not owning any oil production and processing facilities, it remains a raw material exporting country.

Actions speak louder than words. What China has done in Africa has shown that it seeks mutual benefit in energy cooperation. It provides African countries with capital and technology that are indispensable to the exploitation of energy resources. At the same time, it helps these countries become real masters of their resources.

The author is Director of the Division of African Studies of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences