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WEB EXCLUSIVE: What fuels China's Africa policy

Heidi Kingstone

Wednesday, 13th February 2008

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

Today Africa’s rapidly growing relations with China are often explained by China’s insatiable need for the continent’s natural resources. “While this is true,” says Prof. Calestous Juma, who teaches at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where he directs the Science, Technology and Globalisation Project, “a large part of the shift is because China serves as an economic role model for the continent.” China is a startling example of how a region can rise from poverty within a generation and become a dominant player on the global scene.

This liaison has captured the West’s imagination. Not so surprising, perhaps, when you consider that China-Africa trade has swollen from about $10 billion in 2000 to an expected $50 billion this year. China now imports more than 25% of its oil from Africa.

Both the Africans and Chinese say the relationship is based on mutual understanding, mutual need, and common experiences, particularly when it comes to understanding the horrors of colonization and poverty. If we see it simply as something that benefits only China we miss the deeper issues, which have to do with neglect. [Remember that Sudan has been under trade embargo. It is estimated that some 200.000 people have been killed in the conflict and 2.5 million driven from their homes while the Chinese sell weapons to the Khartoum government and allegedly cover for them at the UN Security Council.]

The idea that this burgeoning but long-standing relationship could be viewed as the new imperialism is simply offensive to Africans. “This,” says Dr Lindiwe Mabuza, South Africa’s High Commissioner in the UK, “undermines the intelligence of the African people. Why can we deal freely with Western countries who once colonized us, but not with the Chinese who have never done so. It’s an absurdity. All countries are making a beeline for China. If it is good enough for Germany then why not for Africa? It is patronizing to suggest that Africa cannot discern what is in its own best interest.”

While the West continues to lecture Africa on good governance and human rights, offering money with conditions, Chinese economic
involvement in Africa is not attached to government reform. Less democratic African countries can’t help but think this is great.

In the echoing halls of the Chinese Embassy in central London, which seemed like a mini version of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Xin Ma, political counsellor, said, “we attach great importance to the sovereignty of a country. In China we have a saying. Giving someone a fish is not as good as teaching them how to fish.”

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David Parker

February 13th, 2008 6:51pm

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.