China defends oil trade with Africa

[Dover]

Reuters

BEIJING: China defended its booming oil trade with Africa on Monday, and said Europe and the United States should look at their own engagement on the continent before criticizing Beijing.

China has huge oil investments in Sudan, and rights groups say its engagement there is frustrating international efforts to stop the civil war and atrocities in Darfur.

Africa as a whole accounts for more than one-third of China's crude imports, with Angola its biggest source on the continent.

"What China has done for Africa is out of a sincere feeling, out of friendship from the bottom of the heart forged in past decades, but I have heard some criticism," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai told a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese Parliament.

"An important criticism is that China is taking oil from Africa, but according to statistics, last year, of Africa's total oil exports, China took 8.7 percent," he said...cont'd

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/12/business/oil.php

[Art_from_Ark]

1. China is setting itself up to be a major resource player

It already has a near monopoly on some rare metals like tungsten, and is vigorously pursuing resource projects around the world. China may be acting like it's the friend of poor countries with desirable resources, but one of the ultimate goals of this ostensibly "Communist" country is resource market domination.

[luckyleftyme2]

2. true

but we all try to do this;but bush squandered our budget

[Karenina]

3. The PLAN is:

to facilitate the depopulation of Africa by Africans and grab the resources. Too many players to name.

[RedCloud]

4. A buddy of mine is helping China boom,

He is Chinese and is in the thick of such things. If others are as honorable as he is, we have little to fear.

[w4rma]

6. It's not the little guys with minimal power in China that should concern anyone. (nt)

[hogwyld]

5. China isn't doing anything other countries do

Which is protecting it's own self interest. Everybody makes deals.

[LeftistGorilla]

7. I wrote an essay on this last year....

China is a HUGE player in Africa...

it's so big that just about every African nation has stopped recognizing Taiwan...

Within the next 5 years...
China will be the biggest trading partner in almost every African nation if it isn't already...