In order to cope with the challenges of a growing international economic crisis, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming stated Monday that China is willing to increase cooperation with their largest African trading partner, Angola.

Of course this is not a bad trend. Since November of 2006, China has not only forgiven Angola’s matured debts equivalent to 67.38 million Yuan, but given the nation duty-free favorable treatment on 466 categories of products. Angola has a clear need for additional support from China in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, public health and human resources.  In a recent piece in GQ, John Kampfner reported that Luanda entirely lacks a drainage and sewage system, which caused more than 2,000 deaths from cholera in 2005.  In this respect, Beijing has been an expert practitioner of corporate foreign policy, exhibiting  a clear understanding that infrastructure investment is the best way to maintain access to the country’s oil resources.  Nevertheless, there remain some difficult human rights issues in this budding relationship, and close attention should be paid to the values Angola shares with China, and those it does not.

China's President Hu Jintao (R) and Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing December 17, 2008.

The Angolan government is infamous for stifling the human rights of their citizenry, and the Chinese are not likely to complain about it.  Angolan authorities have intimidated and harassed Amnesty International representatives in the country, making it harder for them to carry out their human rights work. For example, members of the Angolan housing rights organization, SOS-Habitat, have in the past been arrested and detained on a number of occasions while trying to prevent forced evictions that are a frequent happening in Angola.

Furthermore, in 2007 the Director of the Angolan Government’s Technical Unit for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (UTCAH) threatened to ban SOS-Habitat and three other human rights organizations; Mãos Livres, the Association for Justice, Peace and Development (AJPD); and the Open Society Foundation.

In China, it is much of the same, and has been for centuries. Although the Chinese government argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity, and notes progress in that area, it remains clear that even before the tragic events of the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989, China has been one of the leading abusers of its own people’s human rights. The stifling of free speech, the ferocious acts of governmental control and the recurring acts of censorship occur with startling regularity.

So while it is of joint benefit that China encourages its capable enterprises to take part in Angola’s national reconstruction programs, and make more investments in Angola, Prime Minister Kassoma and Chen Deming should ask themselves what recommendations they can make for each other’s nations to promote civil liberties and decrease the need for additional security to combat oppressed-driven disobedience.

Human rights must not be prioritized at the bottom rung of the nation-building ladder – and China’s corporate foreign policy strategy needs to take on a more long-term focus on social, not just economic, development for their top African trading partner.