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When China Rules the WorldIn April 2002 there were only 11В В°Chinese personnel worldwide but by April 2006 this had grown to 1,271 (with China rising from 46th to 14th in the international country ranking): revealingly, around 80 per cent of these troops are in Africa, placing it well above countries such as the UK, US, France and Germany. [1063] In total, over 3,00В В°Chinese peace-keeping troops have participated in seven UN missions in Africa. [1064] China’s impact on Africa has so far, it would appear, been positive. [1065] First, it has driven up both demand and prices for those many African countries that are commodity exporters, at least until the onset of the global downturn. Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP increased by an average of 4.4В % in 2001-4, 5–6% in 2005-6, and a projected 7В % in 2007, compared with 2.6В % in 1999–2001, [1066] with China clearly the major factor since it has accounted for most of the increase in the global consumption of commodities since 1998. [1067] In addition, the growing availability of cheap Chinese manufactured goods has had a beneficial effect for consumers. [1068] The losers have been those countries that are not commodity exporters or those producers — as in South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius, for instance — which compete with Chinese manufacturing exports. [1069] Chinese textile exports have led to many redundancies in various African nations, notably South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya. [1070] Overall, however, there have been a lot more winners than losers ...» |
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