The Chinese – African Relationship: Can Sub-Saharan Africans Think

Article is also up at Brooks Foreign Policy Review, here.

In 2001, Former Singaporean Ambassador to the United Nations, Kishore Mahbubani asked a simple question, which was also the title of his book, “Can Asians Think?” Mr. Mahbubani sought to challenge, what he perceived as, Western paternalism. He believes that Asians do not need indefinite guidance by the Western world, because Asians are capable of independent thought, and just because these thoughts may differ from the West does not mean they are the result of defective thinking. A befitting question for the coming decade is, “Can Sub-Saharan Africans think?” For many Westerners it would seem the answer is, “No”, at least as far as Africa’s relationship with China.

In 2005, the Western media began to express “concern” with the increasing Chinese presence in Sub-Sahara Africa (Africa). During this period, many foreign policy observers began to promote the idea that China is plotting to take over Africa in some neo-colonialist attempt to gain unlimited access to natural resources. For example, Karin Kortmann, a German parliamentary state secretary stated in November of 2006, “our African partners really have to watch out that they will not be facing a new process of colonization” (Cheng 2007). The same year, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, Jack Straw, made similar allegations “Most of what China has been doing in Africa today is what we did in Africa 150 years ago” (Stevenson 2006). This Sinophobic boilerplate is hyperbole, but the narrative suggests that the average African is impotent and their leaders are all iniquitous or ineffectual.

Taiwan: Identity Politics and Economic Free Fall in the Other China

Article is also up at Brooks Foreign Policy Review, here.

Identity Politics and Economic Free Fall in the Other China
by Collin Spears, BFPR Chief Foreign Policy Correspondent

The Other China, The Republic of China (Taiwan) does not have the myriad ethnic diversity of the People’s Republic of China (China). The latter has 56 ethnicities, minorities making up 8% of its 1.3 billion citizens. Taiwan has 23 million people, ethnic Han Chinese making up 98% of the population. The remaining 2% is composed of various aboriginal tribes. Unlike China, Taiwan is a young democracy and its politics have historically been affected by group affiliation, but these ethnic factions are all within the Han majority. Taiwan’s identity politics has and will continue to affect, not only its internal politics during the current economic crisis, but also Cross-Straits relations.

How Japan Can Finally Say “No”

The latest article is now up at Brooks Foreign Policy Review, here.

By Collin Spears

In 1990, the controversial right-wing Governor of Tokyo, Ishihara Shintaro, published “The Japan That Can Say No: Why Japan Will Be First Among Equals”. Nearly 20 years later, many Japanese are still pondering if or when Japan can “say no” to the United States, the target of Ishihara’s book. Since the end of World War II (WWII), Japan has worked closely with the United States on issues of East Asian security. Still, if America is not careful in addressing Japanese concerns, especially in regard to North Korea, this may create a tipping point in U.S. – Japanese relations, where Tokyo significantly breaks with Washington over foreign policy.