The main difference between aid from the West and aid from China is that China's aid does not come with strings attached.
That is not how Africans see it. China comes into Africa and sets up a Chinese run infrastructure that becomes an outlet for their their cheap products and it ends up undercutting the local merchants. This is a common complaint about how the Chinese operate in Africa.
The bottom line is that whatever happens, Africa is seen as a rich storehouse of mineral wealth to be exploited to help the rise of China. So don't give me that "no strings attached" lie about China as they drain natural resources from Africa. The motto is Africa for China not Africa for Africans
China’s Appetite for Wood
Takes a Heavy Toll on Forests
More than half of the timber now shipped globally is destined for China. But unscrupulous Chinese companies are importing huge amounts of illegally harvested wood, prompting conservation groups to step up boycotts against rapacious timber interests.
Logging in Zambezia Province
Chinese timber buyers are colluding with Mozambican business people and some members of the Mozambique government and their forest services to strip precious slow-growing tropical hardwoods from Mozambique’s semi-arid forests at a rate that could see the resource exhausted in 5-10 years,
Chinese State-owned Mining Companies Exploit Zambian Miners ...
The report, entitled “‘You’ll Be Fired If You Refuse’: Labor Abuses in Zambia’s Chinese State-Owned Copper Mines,” describes abusive employment conditions at four Chinese-run mines, including substandard health and safety conditions, 12- to 18-hour shifts of strenous labor, and anti-union activities.
China mistreats its own people. You can guess how they treat Africans
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The Chinese have been especially brutal on Africans who have dared to travel to China. This is a well known fact and is a source of resentment against Chinese who come to Africa. Africans are well aware of the rampant racism Chinese have towards Black Africans
I know you are aware of the many riots the Chinese have conducted against African students in China. Here is just one such incident:
...."On December 24, 1988 two male African students were entering their campus at Hohai University in Nanjing with two Chinese women. The occasion was a Christmas Eve party. A quarrel between one of the Africans and a Chinese security guard, who had suspected that the women the African students tried to bring into the campus were prostitutes and refused their entry, led to a brawl between the African and Chinese students on the campus which lasted till the morning, leaving 13 students injured.
300 Chinese students, spurred by false rumors that a Chinese man had been killed by the Africans, broke into and set about destroying the Africans' dormitories, shouting slogans. Part of the destruction involved setting fire to the Africans' dormitory and locking them in. The President of the University had to order the fire department to take action.
After the police had dispersed the Chinese students, many Africans fled to the railway station in order to gain safety at various African embassies in Beijing. The authorities prevented the Africans from boarding the trains so as to question those involved in the brawl. Soon their numbers increased to 140, as other African and non-African foreign students, fearing violence, arrived at the station asking to be allowed to go to Beijing.
By this time, Chinese students from HoHai University had joined up with students from other Nanjing universities to make up a 3000-strong demonstration that called on government officials to prosecute the African students and reform the system which gave foreigners more rights than the Chinese. On the evening of December 26, the marchers converged on the railway station while holding banners calling for human rights and political reform. Chinese police managed to isolate the non-Chinese students from the marchers and moved them to a military guest house outside Nanjing. The protests were declared illegal, and riot police were brought in from surrounding provinces to pacify the demonstrators, which took several more days. ...."
