China defended its booming oil trade with Africa on Monday, and said Europe and the United States should look at their own engagement on the continent before criticising Beijing. China has huge oil investments in Sudan, and rights groups say its engagement there is frustrating international efforts to stop the civil war and atrocities in Darfur.
Africa as a whole accounts for more than one-third of China's crude imports, with Angola its biggest source on the continent. "What China has done for Africa is out of a sincere feeling, out of friendship from the bottom of the heart forged in past decades, but I have heard some criticism," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai told a news conference on the sidelines of China's parliament.
"An important criticism is that China is taking oil from Africa, but according to statistics, last year, of Africa's total oil exports, China took 8.7 percent. Europe took 36 percent and the United states 33 percent.
"If importing 8.7 percent means exploitation, how about 36 percent and 33 percent?" he asked. China has made Africa a centrepiece of its diplomacy, seeking access to energy and resources on the continent to feed its rapidly expanding economy, as well as the strategic benefits that come with the backing of Africa's 53 countries at the United Nations. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered Africa $5 billion in loans and credit during a China-Africa summit in Beijing last year.
He followed up by announcing ahead of a trip there last month that China would lend $3 billion in preferential credit over three years and double aid and interest-free loans.
Hu's eight-nation tour also included a visit to Sudan, where he offered an interest-free loan of 100 million yuan ($12.9 million) for it to build a new presidential palace and wrote off up to $70 million in Sudanese debt to China.
The blitz of aid and investment has led to criticism from Western aid groups who say China is encouraging corruption and misrule by failing to demand conditions. But Bo rejected such charges, saying China's engagement was helping the continent develop.
"We hear non-stop that China is becoming a new colonialist," Bo said. "Africa in past let its natural resources be taken away at low prices, but now it is not the same. China and Africa, according to reasonable market prices, conduct normal and reasonable buying and selling," he said.