Liberia’s astute politician, Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh, said despite diplomatic propaganda that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was engaged with Africa to exploit its natural resources, the Asian nation was making strides in Liberia because it understood the needs of the Liberian people.

Essentially, according to him, the PRC has broken the colonial norms of engagement in which European powers used Africa as reservoirs for raw materials, the market prices of which they determined at the expense of the livelihoods of the citizens of countries involved.

The assertion was contained in a commentary Dr. Tipoteh released to coincide with the 63rd Independence Anniversary of Liberia on July 26 this year.

Unlike the industrialized world, which manipulated Third World economies into producing that which the citizens cannot consume in exchange for finished goods, which the nations cannot produce, the PRC was working with its African partners to tailor production to the needs of the people.

“It is the honesty in the China-Liberia marriage that has broken the bad precedence of dancing to the piper’s tune and has introduced the good precedence of dancing to the people’s tune,” he said, quoting the Chinese Ambassador to Liberia as expressing the need for Liberia to turn some of its raw exports into finished goods.