http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/35511

From: , Global Policy Innovations Program, More from this Affiliate
Published April 29, 2008 09:36 AM

Last month, Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, became the latest high-level Chinese official to tourAfrica. He and a group of senior Chinese leaders made a stop to inspect Chinese workers building Algeria's East-West Highway. The $11 billionthoroughfare will stretch over 1,200 kilometers, traversing Algeria from Morocco to Tunisia. According to CCTV, the highway is the largest and most technically challenging overseas project for Chinese contractors since the historic Chinese-built railroad linking Tanzania and Zambia.

This visit and countless others reflect and facilitate Beijing's ever-expanding role in Africa- a role viewed by many as a prelude to conflict with the West over natural resources. Perhaps, butChina's Africa presence also creates opportunities for U.S.-China cooperation on energy, security, corruption, and health, topics that require increasingly wide-ranging and regular dialogue, which has already begun at the assistant secretary level.

ENERGY

In 2006, Africa supplied about 33 percent of China's oil imports and about 22 percent of U.S. imports. Both countries expect these percentages to rise. China also purchases minerals, timber, and other raw materials from Africa, and the continent is a growing market for Chinese exports.

As energy consumers, the United States and China would both benefit from increased supply. Although some African oil-exporting nations benefit from higher petroleum prices, importing states also want lower prices at the pump, and all Africans would benefit from economies of scale, increased supply, and improved efficiency. One example of trilateral cooperation is Sonangol, the China-Angola offshore oil joint venture with BP.

SECURITY

Peacekeeping, counterterrorism, and narcotics interdiction are key areas in which the United States and China could cooperate in Africa. In 2001, Beijing began contributing significant numbers of peacekeepers to UN operations in Africa. Today, almost 1,500 Chinese blue helmets are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sudan. Additional efforts to mitigate conflict in Africa must include the end to all arms shipments to Zimbabwe and the surrounding region.

Two challenges exist in Sudan---a solution to the crisis in Darfur and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Northern and Southern forces. As an original CPA proponent, the United States is vested in its implementation. China, which obtains about 6 percent of its oil imports from Sudan, also wants continued peace. South Africa has also shown a strong desire to work on behalf of the CPA. All three parties should work together to advance the CPA.

...

HEALTH

Africans constitute about ten percent of the global population, but comprise 60 percent of the world's population with HIV/AIDS, 90 percent of malaria deaths, and more than half of deaths due to infectious and parasitic diseases. To combat malaria, the U.S.-based PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the Chinese company Shanghai Wanxing Bio-Pharmaceuticals are jointly developing a vaccine.

Cooperative efforts like this one combine both countries' medical technology, resources, and access to drugs and, if expanded, could make a real difference in Africans' health. Although the United States has devoted more resources than China to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, China vowed to increase funds to counter this scourge at the Beijing summit with Africanleaders in November 2006.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0429/p02s01-usgn.htmlByTom A. Peter| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 29, 2008 edition

With Lake Champlain, snowy peaks, and 40 inches of rain a year, the Green Mountain State isn't exactly parched. But don't tell that to Annette Smith.

Six years ago, a mining company pumped 2.7 million gallons of water from an underground well near her Danby, Vt., home. The local springs were so dry she had to spend more than $4,000 to dig a new well. When water eventually returned to the springs, the levels weren't what they once were, she says.

Such episodes have Vermonters so worried about unregulated water withdrawals that on Friday the state legislature passed a bill that establishes a water-permit requirement.

There's just one problem.

...

We wanted to protect our groundwater for the next several generations," says state Sen. Virginia Lyons (D), chair of the Natural Resources and Energy Committee. "If we don't have any protections, then an international company could come in and begin to extract water and take [it] without regard for the amount of resources available."

At least one Canadian bottled water company already pumps water out of Vermont, bottles it in New Hampshire, and sells it around the country, a sore spot among many locals.

"It really is commercializing and making a commodity of something that is really a staple for all of us," says Carolyn Shapiro, an East Montpelier artist who lives near a proposed bottled water site.

US general in Baghdad says bringing basic services to Sadr City to weaken Sadr and his militia can work this time.ByHoward LaFranchi| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 28, 2008 edition

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0428/p01s03-wome.html

Baghdad - Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, US commander in Baghdad, patted the hand of the Iraqi general who oversees government forces in Sadr City. He smiled, but delivered a firm message.

"Tell the mayor - the mayor of Baghdad, the big mayor - tell him we'll be here tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, and we'll be very disappointed if he's not here. The prime minister needs this to happen," he said during a Friday trip to Sadr City. "We gotta get going."

General Hammond is pushing for services - trash pickup, medical care, water, electricity - for a southern slice of the volatile district. It's part of a US plan to win Iraqis away from Moqtada al-Sadr's sway. And they see a window of opportunity as fighting in Mr. Sadr's Baghdad stronghold shows signs of quieting.

While sporadic fighting continued Sunday, clashes with the Mahdi Army calmed after Sadr issued a statement Friday calling for the "patience" of his followers and for an end to bloodshed among Iraqis. He stepped back from his earlier threat of "open war until liberation," saying it was only directed at Iraq's "occupiers."

In the assault on the Shiite enclave, the Americans' original goal was to push Mahdi Army gunmen out of the southernmost section of Sadr City, from where a barrage of rockets and mortars was launched on the Green Zone, home of US and Iraqi offices. The firings from this part of the district have mostly stopped.

...

Added to that is Maliki's commitment to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent visit to Baghdad that the government would spend $300 million to improve living conditions in the Shiite neighborhood.

But perhaps the best sign, some US military officials say, is evidence that local residents are ready for things to change in the neighborhood.

"The people tell us they are sick of the fighting, they want a positive life," says Lt. Col. Frank Curtis, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 302nd Civil Affairs Battalion.

... 

 "I didn't think I'd find myself doing this," Hammond says. "But we need the people to see they have security forces that are making their neighborhoods safe, and to see they have a government that can deliver a better quality of life."