WEB EXCLUSIVE: What fuels China's Africa policy

19 January 2008

Heidi Kingstone on the motivation behind China's relations with Africa

Achieving food self-sufficiency is fundamental. “The Chinese still have big government stockpiles of key foods as they have had for millennia,” says Alistair Michie, Honorary Associate, Needham
Research Institute, Cambridge, a centre for the study of the history of East Asian science, technology and medicine. “For the first time in their 2200 year long civilisation China is dependent on importing resources. How the Chinese will handle this dependency is a really important question with no historical pointers as a guide.” The Chinese, he adds, have always used history as a mirror. Controversially, he adds, that “ the Chinese are very racist towards black people so will they cope any better with the endless
cycles of violence in Africa? My bet is to look to Chinese pragmatism for the answers. Their decisions will certainly not be driven by ideology.”

Either way, Africa is very happy to have an alternative game and alternative gurus in town, after feeling under the West’s thumb for so long. Maybe China will do better because of this more robust attitude. China is very inventive, pragmatic, used to dealing with troubling bureaucracy and those difficulties and finding ways around the red tape. China is in for the long haul and will only get more powerful over the next two decades.

According to Winters, “China will grow faster than the rest of the world. They will just be larger and more confident. African rulers are happy to have the Chinese there, and the Chinese are happy to be there. What isn’t clear is whether investing in these countries will give China preferential treatment if there is a crunch. When push comes to shove whoever has the most money, influence and power will have the access.” The Chinese probably understand that.

While the Africans seem happy to have the Chinese as a countervailing influence, one senior African-based British diplomat said they treat the Chinese with great suspicion and circumspection. He believes the Africans were deeply offended by the choreography of the November Beijing Chinese-African Summit. Mabuza refutes this allegation saying that China is doing exactly what the Africans asked them to.

Harvard’s Juma believes that the true test of the durability of the relations will depend on whether in future China becomes an importer of Africa’s manufactured goods. How Africa will deal with its other problems – low levels of productivity, high transaction costs, poor and costly access to markets, and labour market rigidity – are key issues that Africa needs to deal with in order to follow in China’s lead.

Right now, as both the African and the Chinese would attest, we are living in interesting times, but for those, like Spielberg, with a conscience and passion for human rights, these times also fuel a sense of despair.

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David Parker

February 13th, 2008 6:51pm Report this comment

I probably speak from a geriatric generation, however, it was once (as late as the 1970s) a publicly admitted objective of Chinese communist leaders, that their ultimate goal was the imposition of world wide Chinese political ideology. Needless to say, the nature of that ideology itself may have changed somewhat over the intervening years, but not their underlying ambition or determination. Unlike Western politicians or diplomats, most of whom are always loooking for a "quick resolution", the Chinese temperament tends, patiently, to favour the long term view, even if this may extend well beyond their own individual personal political influence or careers.