How China is taming the untamed African continent

This caught my eye, as something that's sure to be a game-changer in the near future:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/how_chinas_approach_beats_the.html

The continent of Africa, of course, has been one of the problem areas that the US military has had to keep its eye on. Here, now, is China, exercising its economic brute force, opening markets by using its own money and human exertions to create infrastructure on that continent:

China is everywhere in Africa these days, both exploiting the continent's vast natural riches and pursuing infrastructure projects long promised but never quite delivered by the West.

Building railroads from inland areas to the coast, with the eventual prospect of a network that spans sub-Saharan Africa? Putting in highways at affordable prices across the continent? Constructing state-of-the-art office complexes, within budgets that African nations can afford?

These are all goals that African leaders have pursued for a long time. In the past, a toxic combination of corruption, murky ties between ex-colonizing countries (and their business elites) and the new rulers, and overly complex planning structures derailed project after project. Given the ability to deliver projects on time and on budget, the Chinese offer Africa's governments and people a clean-cut deal: If you work with us, we will build it — period. No ifs, ands, or buts….

Focusing on market-building first can empower a budding middle class — which provides a check to the vestiges of often clan-based political and economic feudalism. In this approach, economic development leads political development. That is pretty much how things transpired in Europe over the centuries. There, economic empowerment led the merchant classes to demand increased political rights, which eventually put the continent on the road to full-blown democracy….

Meanwhile, the Chinese have kept building bridges, railroads, and conference centers. Ironically, it is the Chinese — not the Americans — who can make a compelling case that their focus in Africa has been not on spreading ideology but on the practical business of securing natural resources and creating future customers and trading partners….