Dr Ricardo Soares de Oliveira comments on African resistance to corporate China

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira was quoted in aNew York Timesarticle (17 September) on the setbacks faced by Chinese oil sector investors in several African states, including Gabon, Niger and Chad.

The article argues that, under the pretext of environmental and labor law violations, African governments, including some of the weakest on the continent, are seeking to diminish the clout of Chinese corporations.

Commenting on the expulsion from Chad of China National Petroleum staff following the discovery they had been dumping crude oil in a local ditch and forcing local workers to remove it without adequate protection, Ricardo said:

“Regardless of the actual spillage, which the Chadian government would normally not care much about, this seems to be a warning, which just goes to show that even the prototypical weak state in Africa can have serious leverage, and that African-Chinese relations are not as unbalanced as is sometimes argued.”

Ricardo also stated that Chinese oil companies seem “genuinely unprepared for this degree of pushback”.

The full article can be read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/world/africa/china-finds-resistance-to-oil-deals-in-africa.html?pagewanted=all