Every country in the world has a number of issues that happen within their borders. Smaller, struggling countries have issues that mostly pertain to their economies and human rights. Larger countries face all of these issues and more, but on a much larger scale. What is ironic is that there have been instances where what a larger country has done has negatively affected life in other countries. China immediately comes to mind as an example. China is home to the largest economy in the world and the largest population in the world. In order to keep a country that large running, a number of things must be done. The most important of these is acquiring a necessary number of resources to power the country. Without energy the world’s largest economy would fall in a matter of weeks, if not days. So much of this depends on their power grid. Because of this, China looked elsewhere for help. The country imports coal, natural gas, and other minerals and resources to keep up with the demand that the country is facing. In fact, China has invested heavily into the continent of Africa and many of their countries. This is due to the fact that Africa is home to a large amounts of resources. China is in desperate need of these resources to maintain economic stability. Due to the large investments China makes, one would assume China is helping these African nations in a number of ways—improvement of socio-economic rights being one of them. However, China has been known to take advantage of certain situations that they may find themselves in, at home as well as abroad. It has been noted that although China is building infrastructure and helping industrialize the continent of Africa, China has not been doing the best to help the continent with socio-economic rights. China has issues with these rights back in their own country, so it is not surprise that there are issues in other countries and continents where they are heavily invested. It is also no surprise that they do not feel the most comfortable with helping other countries when they face similar issues. For example, China has been known to put some African workers out of jobs as they want their own experts and workers working on their investments. Also, Chinese resource extraction has not been the kindest to Africa and their nations. Mining, drilling, and other methods of extraction have left Africa hurting and looking for help that China should be giving in the first place. Africa welcome Chinese investment money, jobs, and economic activity; but they come at a cost. To improve the situation, China should sort out their socio-economic rights issues at home, so that they can immediately help the continent who has kept their lights on and their economy booming.
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