Olympic superpower

Olympics: China, Koreas are big winners in London

China may not have repeated their feats of Beijing 2008, but their presence in the top two was never in doubt. (AAP)

China proved they've arrived as a genuine Olympic super-power, and both Koreas impressed -- but Japan were top of the flops among Asian countries at the London Games.

China may not have repeated their feats of Beijing 2008, when they topped the medals table for the first time, but with 38 golds their presence in the top two, behind the United States, was never in doubt.
  
South Korea were the only other Asian team in the top 10. North Korea, finishing 20th, had their best Games in 20 years, Hong Kong celebrated cycling bronze and Singapore won their first individual medal in 52 years.
  
India couldn't follow Beijing by claiming their second individual gold, but they finished with two silver medals and four bronze -- their highest individual total.
  
Much as expected, China's divers and badminton and table tennis players missed just two gold medals between them, and their weightlifters hoisted five titles at London's ExCeL.
  
But China's shooters were off-target compared to Beijing, winning only two golds, and their gymnasts dropped from seven victories in 2008 to three on the London apparatus.
  
China's track hopes went up in smoke when 110m hurdler Liu Xiang, the 2004 champion, heart-breakingly limped out of the heats for the second Games running with a career-threatening Achilles tendon tear.
  
But his brave hop down the track to the finish line, symbolic kiss of the last hurdle, and embrace by his waiting competitors, was one of the Games' most memorable images.
  
Meanwhile Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, 16, led China to their best performance in the pool, claiming two wins and a world record each as the team broke through with five titles in one of the Olympics' top-tier events.
  
Sun became China's first male Olympic swimming champion in the 400m freestyle, and then broke the 1500m world record for the second time in a year.
  
Ye set a new mark in the women's 400m medley and also won the 200m medley, while Jiao Liuyang won the women's 200m butterfly. Unproven doping speculation surrounding Ye was angrily dismissed by Sun.
  
"People think China has so many gold medals because of doping and other substances, but I can tell you it is because of hard work," said Sun.
  
"It is all down to training and hard work that we have results. Chinese are not weaker than those in other countries."
  
China, South Korea and Indonesia were also embroiled in one of the Games' worst scandals, when eight badminton players were disqualified for trying to lose group ties to secure easier quarter-finals.
  
South Korea's peerless archers, included the legally blind Im Dong-Hyun, hit the bull's-eye with three out of four gold medals, and their shooters added three more at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
  
They had two more in judo and two in fencing -- but none for Shin A-Lam, whose tearful, hour-long protest over her loss in the women's epee semis won sympathy and media coverage, but no Olympic medal.
  
North Korea's Games made an unpromising start when their women's footballers were pictured next to the South Korean flag on a stadium big screen, prompting a lengthy protest.
  
But tiny, 1.52m (five foot) weightlifter Om Yun-Chol put them on the gold trail when he lifted three times his bodyweight to win the 56kg category with a world record-equalling 293kg.
  
Kim Un-Guk and Rim Jong-Sim also lifted their way to gold at the ExCeL venue, while An Kum-Ae got judo gold on the opening weekend as North Korea matched their best ever haul of four titles at Barcelona 1992.
  
Japan, who are bidding to host the Games in 2020, had high hopes of emulating their record total of 16 gold medals. But after a near-wipeout in the judo, they ended with just seven.
  
South Korea rubbed salt into the wound when they beat Japan, their fiercest rivals, 2-0 for men's football bronze.
  
South Korea's Park Jong-Woo celebrated by waving a politically sensitive banner laying claim to an island group claimed by both countries. He was later barred from collecting his medal.
  
Sarah Lee Wai-Sze pedalled to Hong Kong's first cycling medal, bronze in the keirin, and China-born Feng Tianwei ended Singapore's half-century wait for an individual medal with bronze in the women's table tennis.
  
Malaysia got their first diving medal after Pandelela Rinong's bronze in the 10m platform, and there was a wave of sympathy for badminton star Lee Chong Wei, who fell just short of claiming the country's first gold.
  
Indonesia won two weightlifting medals, but nothing in badminton for the first time in 20 years, and Thailand had medals in boxing, taekwondo and weightlifting.

Source: AF

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Malaysian leaders should learn from Deng Xiaoping?

It’s all about leadership

Recent Asian political history provides us with some useful examples of effective leadership. However, the list, sadly, is not long.

WITH a general election in the offing, Malaysians are quite naturally thinking a lot about “leadership”.

Recent Asian political history provides us with some useful examples of effective leadership.

However, the list, sadly, is not long. Many of the men (and women) who have led our countries have also been deeply flawed.

For example, in the case of Jawaharlal Nehru, his ideas and rhetoric may well have been brilliant but his performance in government was often disappointing, if not disastrous.

Deng Xiaoping, conversely, stands out among Asia’s leaders. He’s also the subject of a recently published biography by the academic Ezra Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.

First, Deng did more to alleviate global poverty than anyone else in the past century. According to Bloomberg, more than 250 million Chinese escaped poverty during his stewardship.

Described by Mao Zedong as a “needle inside a ball of cotton”, the Szechuan province-born Deng rose to the top of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its Politburo after a long, arduous process, including two periods in political wilderness, the first of which was the Cultural Revolution.

By 1978, when he was returned to the centre of power, China was at its lowest ebb. As Vogel wrote: “The average per capita income of Chinese peasants, who made up 80% of the population, was then only US$40 per year (RM124). The amount of grain produced per person had fallen below what it had been in 1957.”

But China was lucky to have Deng at this critical juncture. By the late 1970s, Deng had accumulated more than 50 years of experience at the heart of the CCP, the military, high-level diplomacy and governance.

Deng was experienced, wily, determined and above all, extremely pragmatic.

Moreover, his family’s personal tragedy during the Cultural Revolution – his son Deng Pufang was crippled after being beaten by the Red Guards – made his desire to stabilise and strengthen China all the more intense.

Deng was lucky enough to have met and worked with outstanding leaders. For example, while studying in France in the mid-1920s, he was to forge a critical friendship with Zhou Enlai, who – in turn – grew to respect the diminutive but rock-solid Deng.

Similarly, in the years when the Communists were battling the Nationalists, Deng assumed a vital military role – leading men into battle; motivating, coordinating and administering hundreds of thousands troops, their supplies and their relations with the local communities.

His most enduring success was the Huaihai Campaign of 1948, after which the Communists were able to cross the Yangtze River without resistance, dealing a fatal blow to the Kuomintang and endearing Deng to Mao himself.

So while Deng is better-known for his achievements in the economic sphere – especially his transformation of the coastal provinces in the late 1970s and early 1980s – there’s no denying that his military experience in the field equipped him mentally to lead under pressure.

Having endured the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, Deng was understandably wary of relaxing political controls. He was no democrat. Instead, he saw discipline and loyalty to the CCP as absolutely critical.

Indeed, Tiananmen Square was proof his unshakeable belief in both the primacy of the CCP as well as the need for political stability at all costs.

Whilst we may disagree with what he did, there’s no denying his steadfastness.

Deng was detailed and meticulous in all matters – managing China’s administration with a firm hand.

Fortunately, his international exposure at an early age meant Deng was open to foreign ideas and when it was time for him to lead China; he was ready to embrace the world beyond the Middle Kingdom.

So what can Deng teach us about leadership? I think the following lessons can be drawn:

> Lead decisively and with conviction. If you make a decision you believe is right, stick by it. People respect (and fear) determination;

> Deng believed in education. He rebuilt China’s shattered universities after the Cultural Revolution and shielded the centres of learning from political interference;

> Leaders must prioritise, dealing with only the most critical obstacles to development. On assuming power, Deng took a close personal interest in overcoming the infrastructural glitches and political resistance to reform at Xuzhou’s critical railway hub – thereby sending out a strong message to those who dared challenge his authority; and

> Deng laid the foundations for China’s current, albeit uneven rise to power. His legacy is something Malaysian leaders should not ignore.

Ceritalah By Karim Raslan  

Get married and have babies, LKY to Singaporeans!

Migrants are a temporary solution, in the long term, mindsets must change, former PM says

Singaporeans need to marry and have children if they do not want the country to fold up, Mr Lee Kuan Yew warned on Saturday night.

In his annual National Day dinner speech to residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC and Tiong Bahru, Mr Lee kept his message on population simple: The country's citizens are not reproducing enough, and migrants are needed as a temporary solution.

But in the long run, mindsets must change, and the trend of declining birth rates needs to be reversed.

"If we go on like that, this place will fold up because there will be no original citizens left to form the majority," he said.

|And we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms,” he said, noting that Chinese reproduction rate is now at 1.08, Indians at 1.09 and Malays at 1.64.

“So my message is a simple one. The answer is very difficult but the problems, if we don’t find the answers, are enormous,” he added.

Lee acknowledged the pivotal role that work permit holders have played in building Singapore’s infrastructure, and the contribution of permanent residents, without which he said the country’s population would be older, smaller and would lose vitality.

Further, he noted that in the long term, Singapore’s “educated men and women must decide whether to replace themselves in the next generation”. Currently, 31 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men are choosing not to do so, he noted.

“But we’ve got to persuade people to understand that getting married is important, having children is important,” he said. “Do we want to replace ourselves or do we want to shrink and get older and be replaced by migrants and work permit holders? That’s the simple question.”

MSF to tackle problem: Chan Chun Sing

Responding to Lee’s call for solutions to Singapore’s citizen population crunch, current acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing, who will be taking on the newly-established Ministry of Social and Family development (MSF), said the latter will pursue efforts to encourage younger Singaporeans get married and start families earlier.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the same event, Chan acknowledged that the issues are “challenges that cut across different ministries”, and said there are two aspects to the population situation — material and economic, which the government will work on, reported Channel NewsAsia.

“But like what Mr Lee said, the most important aspect has to do with the less tangible... (what) we value as a society — the institution of the family,” he said as quoted by the media outlet. “How do we see the institution, and the family... these are things we really need to work on as a society because it concerns our common future.”

- The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Malaysia's loan growth strong in sight

Analysts still bullish on strong loan expansion

PETALING JAYA: Despite slower banking loan growth indicators for June, analysts and industry observers are still bullish of a double-digit loan growth this year.

 Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) chief economist Nor Zahidi Alias said on the whole, the rating agency still foresee a relatively strong expansion in loans this year, notwithstanding the recent dip in loan applications and approvals.

Strong corporate demand would likely offset the moderation in household demand for loans, he said, adding that the agency envisaged loan growth to moderate slightly to about 10% to 11% this year amid the weaknesses in the external environment.

Nor Zahidi: “Loans have expanded at a relatively strong pace.’

“The banking sector's loan growth has remained resilient despite a slowdown in the country's economic activity as reflected in slower GDP growth in the past few quarters. Overall, loans have expanded by double-digit rates in the first six months of the year, after reaching the peak of 13.8% in September 2011.

“At the end of June, loans expanded at a relatively strong pace of 12.6%, supported by strong corporate demand for loans which grew by 13.6% year-on-year, offsetting the slower pace of loans to the household sector. Household sector's loan growth had softened to 11.8% in June from a cyclical high of 13.9% in November 2010, Nor Zahidi told StarBiz.

Based on Bank Negara's latest banking statistics for June 2012, loan growth was stable at 12.6% year-on-year versus 12.5% in May the same year. The growth was slightly higher for both consumer and business loans at 11.8% and 13.6%, respectively, in June.

The growth in loan applications moderated from 15.1% in May to 10.5% in June, while approvals contracted by 2.1% year-on-year, versus an increase of 18.2% in May. On an annualised basis, loans grew by 12.7% in June compared with 11.4% in May.

The pace of loan applications and approvals has been volatile partly due to the responsible lending guidelines. In the first six months of this year, the average growth in loan applications fell to 14.9% year-on-year compared with an average expansion of 25.5% recorded in the similar period last year. The average growth rate in loan approvals during the period shrunk to 2.8% against 22.6% average expansion in the first half of last year.

RAM Ratings head of financial institution ratings Wong Yin Ching said the total banking system's year-to-date loan growth was 6.4% in the first half compared with 13.6% for the whole of last year, adding that the growth was driven by lending for purchase of residential properties, working-capital financing, as well as financing for purchase of non-residential properties.

“We expect the growth momentum to be sustained in the second half of this year supported by stronger financing demand from the corporate and commercial sector, as the rollout of projects under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and 10th Malaysia Plan gradually gains traction. In recent months, we have observed a pick-up in loan applications from the business and services sectors,” she noted.

Wong expects household loan growth to moderate following the various prudential measures introduced since late 2010. To this end, she said it had seen a sharp slowdown in loans extended for personal use, which only grew by 3.2% in the first half of 2011 (full-year: 20.1%).

Loan growth for residential mortgages also moderated slightly to 6.3% in the first half of 2011 (full-year: 13.2%). She said the rating agency also noted a slight shift towards lending for the purchase of non-residential properties following the tighter criteria for residential property financing.

Meanwhile, Alliance Research Cheah King Yoong said the brokerage was maintaining its forecast of 11 % domestic loan growth this year, for now. Nonetheless, he said it foresaw there was increasing likelihood of an upside risk to its 11% domestic loan growth forecast in view of the strong pick-up of loans in June.

Should the loan growth momentum continue to be sustained in the second half with ETP related loans gaining pace, Cheah added he would not be surprised if this year loan growth could match last year's growth of 13.6%.

Based on the latest statistics, although property loans remained the key driver, where loans to purchase residential and non-residential properties constitute 46% of the annualised 12.7% loan growth for June, he said loans for “other purpose” and working capital had been gathering pace, contributing 28.8% and 22.3% of the loan growth drivers respectively.

He said business loans had recorded a commendable annualised growth of 15.9%, ahead of household loans' annualised growth rate of 10.1%.

Cheah said this reaffirmed Alliance Research's expectations that despite having a slow start in early 2012, overall domestic lending activities were picking up, with stronger growth of business loans stemming from the roll out of ETP's Entry Point Projects, which filled up the vacuum left by the moderation in property loans.

Kenanga Research said despite the lending indicators showing a slowdown, it still believed loan growth would be able to outperform its industry forecast this year.

“Having already achieved a 12.6% loan growth this month, we believe that the banking industry will be able to outperform our industry loan growth forecast of 11% to 13% despite a slightly weaker set of lending indicators,'' it noted.

A banking analyst with a bank backed brokerage felt it was too premature to indicate whether loan growth for the second half would pick up solely based on slower loan indicators alone. Loan growth may slow down in the second half but much would depend on how the results season pans out, he said, adding that, nonetheless, he still expected loan growth this year to be around 10.5%.

By DALJIT DHESI daljit@thestar.com.my

Tiger Woods to return to Malaysia in CIMB Classic

Malaysia is set to grab the golfing headlines in October – thanks to the rebranding of the CIMB Classic.

The future of the CIMB Classic looks as good as it could ever be.

DATUK Seri Nazir Razak spoke for just 10 minutes and the function was over in less than 30 minutes, not withstanding this, the quick-do was probably the most significant event for Malaysia, or even the region, in terms of golf, in the past few decades.

In the least, not since the joint-sanctioning of the Malaysian Open by the European and Asian Tours have we witnessed such an important change to the local golf landscape.

No, we’re not talking only about Tiger Woods coming in October for the CIMB Classic, but rather that in 2013 the tournament will become a full-fledged US PGA Tour event, whose winnings will count towards the money list and also carry all-important FedEx Cup points.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told the function that it has always been his dream to one day see a full-fledged PGA Tour event staged in Malaysia and added that he was grateful to CIMB for making it possible.

The CIMB Classic, as it is now known, will definitely consolidate Malaysia’s standing in global golf and bring the country’s courses into greater focus for the millions of golf tourists around the world.

The prize money in 2013 will be increased to US$7mil (RM21.8mil) and make the CIMB Classic among the richest in the world. At the moment, the tournament with the biggest prize purse in the world is the Players Championship with US$9.5mil.

This is followed by the two WGC (World Golf Championship) events – the Cadillac and the Bridgestone – at US$8.5mil apiece. The four majors (the Masters, US Open, the Open and PGA Championship) and the three FedEx Cup play-off events (The Barclays, Deutche Bank, BMW and Tour Championship) pay out US$8mil each.

There are no PGA Tour events that have prize money of more than US$7mil. Even the WGC-HSBC at Guangzhou’s Mission Hills has an equivalent purse of US$7mil.

The CIMB Classic, a no-cut event, will have 60 PGA Tour players taking part from next year.

By design, the CIMB will precede the WGC-HSBC, event thus offering two hefty paydays for the PGA professionals at the start of the new season format of the US Tour.

Todd Rhinehart, the PGA Tour’s executive director of the CIMB Classic, revealed that the new format would see the golf season start in the fall from next year.

Rhinehart has been brought in specially to run the CIMB Classic – his last job was to organise the season-ending Tour Championship – which decides the FedEx Cup winner.

Another big change to this tournament, besides the name change (it was previously the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic) is that the bank is now dealing with the PGA Tour directly on the event.

As for Tiger’s appearance from Oct 24, it could not have come at a better time.

His last appearance in Malaysia was also at the Mines Resort & Golf Club for the 1999 World Cup.
His return visit and the rebranding of the CIMB Classic comes as we Malaysians have gotten used to the top European names coming to our shores. This year’s event should stir quite a bit of interest.

Between now and October, look out for the various ways and contests to win tickets to watch Tiger and the other PGA Tour players at the Mines.

A point to note, Nazir in his closing remarks jokingly told the audience including, the Prime Minister that he hoped there would not be “any major sporting or political event” during the Oct 24-28 week.

In his reply, Najib said he was looking forward to playing with Tiger in the Pro-Am – provided there was no important events on.

In 1999, when Tiger partnered Mark O’Meara to win the World Cup – it was right in the middle of the campaign period of the GE10.

Let’s hope this time we can watch the CIMB Classic without distraction.

Caddy Master By WONG SAI WAN

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Women driving car market growth

Women seek foreign brand cars for style, performance and confidence boost.

 SEOUL: After years of driving Korean cars, Chung Ji-eun, a 33-year-old businesswoman, recently purchased a Benz C-Class sedan for herself.

“I used to enjoy shopping for European designers’ bags or shoes. But the satisfaction level with the Benz was the highest,” she said.

“I like the luxury design and performance. But, above all, I feel more confident driving alongside the tough male drivers on the road.”

The number of female drivers has surged in Korea since 2000. By the end of 2011, female drivers made up 29.5% of the nation’s drivers, up from 19% 10 years ago.

With their number growing recently, female drivers are expanding their presence in the local car market, especially the market for import car brands that are seeing soaring popularity.

For Korea’s largest car maker Hyundai Motor, 25% of customers are women. At the same time, the figure for import cars is 40% on average.

Hyundai, which claims about 40% of the domestic car market, said it is very difficult to figure out the exact number of female customers in Korea since many of them buy cars in the name of their husband or father.

Thus far, compact cars with cute styles such as Nissan’s Cube and BMW’s Mini have been favoured by female drivers here.

“For all Nissan cars, the male-female ratio is about 6:4. But for the pastel-coloured Cube, the figure is nearly 5:5,” said a Nissan Korea spokesperson.

“I feel the preference of females has become a more important factor in choosing cars (to sell) here.”
According to BMW Korea, the biggest selling foreign brand in Korea, 40% of their customers are also female.

A rising trend is the moderate growth in the number of women choosing sport utility vehicles in recent years, a BMW Korea PR official said.

“The age of our drivers is getting younger and the rate is more aggressive.

“And the number of female SUV drivers is increasing 2% to 3% every year nowadays,” he said.

Of the total BMW SUV drivers, female drivers accounted for 26% in 2011, up from 21% in 2009 and 24% in 2010.

Drivers say import cars are easier for women to drive as most of them are high-performance, luxury vehicles. Of course, the nation’s never-abating appetite for luxury goods may have also affected the growing trend.

Roh Hyun-jung, 50, drives the BMW 5-Series sedan that she bought two years ago on the recommendation of her husband, who still drives a Korean car.

“Driving a BMW requires a middle-aged woman like me to spend less energy. The luxurious interior design was also another reason for choosing the car,” she said.

Kim Jeon-kyu, who teaches at a local driver’s training institute, gave an interesting perspective based on a driving culture unique to Korea.

“I sometimes recommend my female students to buy an import car,” he said.

“Female drivers, especially those who have just started driving, are highly likely to be bullied by tough male drivers here. But if you drive a luxury car, they would just avoid you because they are well aware of the high maintenance costs.”

Korea Herald By Lee Ji-Yoon , AsianNewsNetwork

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When the wife is boss

Hubbies fall victim to abuse of high-earning, dominant spouses

PETALING JAYA: Earning less than your wife can be hazardous to your wellbeing as quite a number of men have discovered.

Although incidents of wives abusing husbands rarely appear in the media, the Welfare Department has been receiving cases of men being mistreated by dominant women every year.

Many of the culprits are women who earn more than their spouses.

The Welfare Department received 25 reports from men who were abused by their wives or girlfriends last year, 32 in 2010 and 14 in 2009.

Most cases were reported in Selangor, followed by the Federal Territory, and the offences included threatening injury, causing physical harm, emotional abuse and locking up the men.

The Department of Women Development received four cases of abused men last year, with financial disagreement being the root of all cases.

In each case, “the wife is more dominant in the family and earns a higher income than the husband,” it said in an e-mail.

Women, on the other hand, reported 117 cases of domestic abuse up to June this year, compared to 649 last year and 663 in 2010.

Neuro-psychologist Dr Nivashinie Mohan said that financial stress was the major cause of domestic violence against men.

“Studies have shown that women assault men about as often as men assault women,” she said.

“While men tend to cause more damage because they are usually stronger, women can even the odds with weapons such as knives, high heels and sharp nails.”

Dr Nivashinie said abused men were reluctant to turn to the authorities for fear of appearing “unmanly”.
“Society also teaches men that it's wrong to hit women, so they don't retaliate,” she added.

Many of the women who abused men were alcoholic while some could be suffering from certain personality disorders that cause them to be violent towards their partners.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said that some women were breadwinners and abused their husbands for “reckless spending”.

He also encountered four cases of wives becoming violent after learning that their spouses had affairs.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ting Joe Hang said women might look on spouses who earn less as “useless” and as a result, would abuse them.

He said there may be reasons other than money problems.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Heng Seai Kie said there was no excuse for domestic violence and advised the victims both women and men to contact the Welfare Department or its 104 district offices nationwide or Talian Nur at 15999

By P. ARUNA and YUEN MEIKENG The Star/Asia News Network

US threat: superpower gun barrels pivot east

As US election fever sizzles, pressure mounts to spread the militarist mindset deeper and wider.

African agenda: Clinton (right) visiting a clinic in a suburb of Cape Town. — Reuters

THE heavy-duty globetrotting of Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State was bound to take in Africa sooner or later. Now it has done so with as much gusto and relish as a new colonial carve-up of the continent.

This was the “dark continent” before it was “discovered” by the white man, before the African could succumb to Western maladies from various illnesses to the “structural adjustments” imposed by Western-controlled multilateral lending agencies.

And Africa today is the continent that Washington sees China moving into. How could the world’s sole superpower let that go unchallenged, particularly when the moves come from the world’s fastest rising power?

China is seeking natural resources for its growth, scouring the earth from South America to Africa and anywhere else with potential. The US, coming from behind in Africa, wants to get even and then pip China at the post.

Just what that means in real policy terms, or how that can benefit US interests, would have to be determined later.

So Clinton goes to nine countries in 11 days, posing with Nelson Mandela in South Africa and holding hands around campfires and singing Kumbaya from Benin, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi to Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan and Uganda.

All of it made for good diplomacy and even better feel-good US news copy. However, some analysts observe that the US just does not have the funds to fulfil its African pledges.

Predictably, Washington denied this was in competition with China over Africa. And like all such official denials, it was as good an unofficial confirmation as any.

Clinton’s African agenda was formally based on the White House white paper “US Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa” produced just weeks before. This policy document aims to strengthen democracy, boost growth, promote peace and security, and encourage development.

Clinton asserted that the US had had a long history in Africa (before China), and it had been there for all the right and good reasons. But whether China is in the picture or not, US policymakers have a problem in credibly claiming both altruism and a long history in Africa.

Such claims of early US engagements typically neglect mentioning the slave trade from the late 15th century. This notorious denial of human rights through massive human trafficking involved the kidnap of countless African men in their prime over centuries by Europeans who sold them to Americans, setting back African development for generations.

Abraham Lincoln reputedly fought a civil war to end slavery only in the 19th century. That showed how embedded slavery had become in the New World, requiring a civil war to abolish.

Yet even this stain on Western history was predated by several decades by Admiral Zheng He’s three voyages to Africa in the early 15th century. These were Chinese trading missions that came to barter goods, not to extract vital human resources in a criminal fashion.

Later, Ronald Reagan’s administration infamously did business with the international pariah state of apartheid South Africa, while branding Mandela a terrorist leader. When questioned, Reagan called it “constructive engagement” to excuse his collaboration with a racist Pretoria.

Other US experiences elsewhere in Africa resulted in gross corruption and denial of human rights. From Rwanda and Somalia through Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo), Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia to Egypt and Libya today, the positive gains are not as rosy as they have been advertised.

More lately, the Obama administration overturned 10 years of hard work internationally by abruptly dumping a global arms trade treaty at the United Nations. Both legal and illegal arms and munitions supplies have devastated the developing world, notably Africa, which continues to lose thousands of lives and more than US$18bil (RM56bil) a year through armed conflict.

Clinton’s asides on China’s African presence come amid general criticism of Beijing’s modus operandi when doing business in Africa. China stands accused of not placing conditions on its African hosts before proceeding to deal with them.

To those intent on demonising China, however, Beijing can never win: it will be condemned whatever it does or does not do. If China were to impose political conditions on business deals, those who now complain it is not doing so will again be the first to complain.

There is a historical record for reference: once, an ideologically rampant China offered inducements to factions in developing countries to support their domestic communist movements.

Beijing has wisely refrained from such preconditions. Should China still offer such inducements, if only to make its own Communist Party or government look good?

Would it really be better if China exerted pressure on its trading partners or investment destinations to do what it considers important for its own values and objectives? To do so would be China’s equivalent of imposing US conditions on the developing world.

Some countries have also been guilty of offering “aid programmes” that hire their nationals as expatriates in the country supposedly aided. In contrast, China is said to hire African nationals for work on infrastructure projects it builds in Africa.

This provides local employment, while the infrastructure once built will remain in those countries to produce a multiplier effect for development through improved transportation for trade, investment, tourism and the distribution of educational opportunities and healthcare facilities.

Unlike the US variety, Chinese aid, trade and investment come with no strings attached, no crippling IMF or World Bank conditions, no military industrial complex supplying weapons to one side or the other, and no promises or threats of destabilisation, subversion, invasion, occupation, war or “regime change”. And Western critics pick on Beijing for that.

African analysts cite these as reasons why Africans will welcome China’s presence more than a competing US presence. China’s business deals come without the extra baggage of self-righteous preachiness and ideologically loaded value judgments.

Like the rest of the Third World, Africa may want to get as much as possible from both China and the US. So, in practice, it will not be a question of one suitor or the other.

But if Africa on its own is such a compelling case for renewed US interest, with China not a factor at all as officially claimed, why did Washington take so long to get interested? US policymakers must know that the official narrative of a rising Africa is not quite accurate.

To a degree, the Obama-Clinton act over Africa has also resulted from Mitt Romney’s presidential challenge. A leading US specialist on China, Prof David Shambaugh, finds that the Romney campaign is building a foreign policy team based largely on George W. Bush advisers.

This team sees China as a “global competitor” over Africa, and which despite some diplomatic platitudes in the preface, is relying heavily on greater military power. Lethal fallout may yet land in other regions from a superpower tottering in West Asia through teetering in South Asia on the way to Obama’s “pivot” in East Asia.

US presidential campaigns traditionally focus on domestic issues, but China and Africa are now generating a buzz among Americans online. Obama may also win a second term, but Romney’s influence on the campaign trail and Republican pressure in Congress may yet set the tone for US-China relations to come, to impact inevitably on East Asia as a whole.

Behind The Headlines By Bunn Nagara The Star

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