Shortcomings of Chinese presence in Angola

Ana Maria Correia
 - Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Letters and Sciences, USJ.

Luanda’s Hospital is collapsing four years after having been inaugurated. The interned patients have recently been moved to other hospitals in Luanda’s province because a tragedy was imminent.  The Hospital was built and equipped by a Chinese company under cooperative plans between China and Angola, but from the very beginning several construction related problems hindered the full usage of the infrastructure and the equipment. A nauseous smell has been permeating from the septic tank since the first day, making the area a serious competitor to shantytowns, and the air conditioning stopped working a long time ago preventing doctors from carry out several medical procedures, including surgery. Ever since, some of the equipment has been put aside or used ineffectively because nobody knows how to operate it correctly – the instructions are solely in Chinese.
This case in point leads us to some thoughts on post-colonial reality. Angola’s people have been, for the last five hundred years, victims of their own apparently unending natural resources. The land’s wealth has made the country a successive target of foreign greed, whereas its indigenous population has been kept enslaved, silenced and exploited.  During the colonial period Portugal had practiced what some have called “the Portuguese apartheid”, since indigenous people were segregated into musseques (shantytowns) and were relegated to the very bottom of labor activities. After independence, the scramble for Africa brought to Angola the Cuban military forces, the U.S. soldiers, and lately the Chinese are setting their sights there. Unlike the others, who had well defined political agendas, China’s focus is on investment-friendly plans; pushing Angola’s economic development. But, in spite of the benefits this may bring, the local population is far from happy with the growing Chinese presence.  There are complaints about the lack of transparency concerning the China-Angola policy. Nobody knows how to answer very simple questions, such as how much has been donated, where the money goes, with what efficacy it is being used, or who is benefiting from it.
Returning to the case in point, what percentage of the Chinese investment to build the Luanda hospital ended in the infrastructure itself? According to specialists, that structure should have lasted at least fifty years without any intervention. Why was it that the inspection team was not present at the site, monitoring the evolving construction works, reporting the errors and requesting solutions on time?
Corruption seems to be a by-product of Angola’s developmental boom, and this case might be an example of misuse of public power. From the Chinese perspective, compromising with this kind of situation can jeopardize its whole project in this African country. It raises criticisms against the role of China in Angola and questions its goodwill toward the country. To avoid being seen as the most recent colonial settler in Angola, targeting its fabulous reserves of oil, diamonds, and other precious minerals while relegating local people to increasing misery, China needs to rethink the role it wants to play in Angola - as well as in other African countries.  This is especially because the critical case of Luanda’s hospital is far from unique in Chinese investment in building infrastructure in Africa.

©MDTimes/University of Saint Joseph