Siobhan O'Connor
Author of No More Dirty Looks.
Are the tides changing in China's controversial business dealings in Africa? Sure seems so. China appears to be "tightening purse strings" on the continent, backing away from big deals with politically unstable regimes. Which is interesting because, of course, China has been criticized in the past few years for doing exactly the opposite: Turning a blind eye to rogue regimes in favor of business few countries will touch with a 10-foot pole.We wrote about this about a year ago, and a lot has changed in a short period of time (though certain country's relations have been strained for some time). China, which, critics like to say, was all too happy to do business with the "bad guys" is now looking for the same thing Western business looks for in international investment: economic and political stability.
The pressing question, which I can't answer, is: What happens to countries like Guinea, which badly need infrastructure investment and have come to rely on foreign capital, if the big money dries up?
Image by Olivier Asselin for The New York Times
