The China-Africa partnership has greatly evolved over the years, driven by an aggressive effort by China to find new markets for its goods and acquire natural resources to meet its domestic energy needs. The Year 2006 was declared the “Year of Africa” by Beijing and Chinese leaders have vigorously travelled the continent, courting African leaders for economic partnerships and creating what many have described as the Great Chinese Takeout. The Sino-African partnership, despite its many promises, has not been fully constructive. To address that, a closer look must be taken at how the partnership began, key strategic drivers behind the relationship, and the ongoing tensions that pose a threat to the partnership.

China has always had an interest in Africa, In the 1960’s and 70’s Beijing focused on advancing ideological solidarity with an aim to entrenching Chinese-style communism and minimizing western imperialism in Africa. China also turned to Africa for balance during the cold war and during tensed China-Soviet Union relations. Political expediency and ideological motivations were the basis for many of China’s aid to Africa in the 1970s. One of such gifts was the $455 million Tanzania-Zambia railway project – a hugely significant gift at the time – that engaged 25,000 Chinese workers and saw completion in 1976. The events of Tiananmen Square also firmed up China’s relations with Africa. As the West turned away from China, most African countries did not and that led to the fostering of relations based on respect and non-interference. This relationship has since evolved over the years, primarily due to China’s transition from being an energy exporter to an energy importer in 1993. Sino-African relations are now driven by economic factors that the West had traditionally pursued with little regard to Africa’s development.

China’s rapid double-digit economic expansion has now created a need for massive amounts of energy, making China the second largest oil consumer after the United States. This growing demand for oil has led Beijing to pursue hydrocarbon sources in Africa. Chinese investments, combined with high level visits and a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of African nations has bought China favor with many African countries. One of such countries is Sudan, which supplies China with 600,00 barrels of crude oil per day. By advocating a policy of non-interference in Sudan’s domestic affairs, China has been able to get away with supporting Sudan’s discredited government and blocking UN Security Council sanctions against the regime in the wake of the killings of over 200,000 people in the Darfur genocide.

This demonstrates China’s capacity to do whatever it takes to preserve its energy sources and economic interests, especially since Sudan remains China’s largest overseas oil project, as moves by the state owned Chinese oil firm, CNOOC, to acquire a sixth of Nigeria’s oil reserves for $50 billion recently failed. While countries like Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Angola continue to offer crude supplies to China, China’s search for natural resources in Africa goes well beyond oil. Mozambique is a major source of timber, Zambia provides copper and Congo an array of minerals. Given China’s investment of billions of dollars in engineering and construction resources in oil, gas and mineral infrastructure in Africa, it is clear that Beijing is determined to compete with other Western nations in consolidating the security of its long-term strategic energy supplies in Africa.

In addition to natural resources, China has also found a lucrative weapons market in Africa. This is due to the rate of armed conflicts and civil wars in many African nations. African dictator governments and rebel groups have invested heavily in Chinese weapons and military equipment which would otherwise be hard to obtain from Western nations that have imposed embargoes and restrictions on the sale of weapons to rogue regimes. One of such cases was the sale of $200 million worth of fighter aircrafts and military vehicles to Zimbabwe, despite US and EU arms embargo on the Mugabe administration. China is also reported to have been Sudan’s largest supplier of arms, including Chinese made tanks, bombers, machine guns, helicopters and rocket propelled grenades, thereby helping to intensify the 20 year-old North-South civil war in Sudan. These same weapons that were sold to the Sudanese government were also used in the Darfur genocide, as government-backed Arab militias cleansed African tribes off their land.

While China may realize huge profits from weapons sales to Africa, Beijing’s motivations are not entirely economic. China also invests in building co-operative military relationships by offering military training and technical assistance to various African nations. This is with an aim to gaining support in the United Nations for its political goals. Such goals include preventing Taiwanese independence and diverting the attention of the United Nations from China’s own human rights records. But China is not unique in striking deals with rogue regimes for political gain and strategic self interest. The United States has itself continued to support human rights violators like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt for its own strategic interests, making it difficult to reprimand Beijing for its unrestrained engagement of rogue regimes in Africa.

Trade and investment are a major component of China’s strategic relationship with Africa. Uniquely designed to compete directly with US-African trade, Beijing established the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (CACF) to promote stronger trade and investment relations between China and African countries in both the government and private sectors. As a result, since 2003, the total annual growth of Sino-Africa trade has averaged more than 40 percent and stood at $106.8 billion in 2008 vs. $30 billion just 4 years prior in 2004.

Despite China’s expanded investments in Africa, Sino-African relations have not been without tension. When China offers aid to African nations it requires the use of Chinese contractors for projects and the purchase of Chinese goods with the aid money. This has resulted in the proliferation of Africa based Chinese firms with poor labor and environmental standards; and whose activities sometimes lead to riots, labor unrest, and environmental problems that breed deep resentment against Chinese presence in African communities. An example of such an incident is China’s state-run oil company, Sinopec, and its activities in Gabon. The company was caught drilling for oil in Gabon’s mature reserves of virgin rainforest, polluting, dynamiting and cutting down protected jungle to create roads for its equipments. Another such incident is the Zambian riots due to poor wage conditions in Chinese owned Zambian mines. Local African critics claim that Beijing extracts natural resources and minerals at non-competitive prices while flooding the continent with sub-standard, subsidized goods and excess Chinese labor that take away jobs from the locals.

The cultural differences that exist between China and Africa also create tensions and often lead to resentment. One of such incident was an attempt by the Chinese Government to cremate the bodies of Nigerians that died in custody while in China. While this may be an acceptable practice in China, it is foreign and abhorrent to many Africans and the backlash was fierce, fueling the already growing perception of insensitivity by China in Africa. Also, the world recently witnessed anti-racism protests, in China, by hundreds of Africans, due to the death of an African in Chinese immigration custody.

Despite tensions that exist, the Sino-African partnership offers significant benefits to both sides. Africa provides China the ability to expand its sources of natural gas, oil and mineral resources, while also increasing access to markets for Chinese firms and Chinese goods. On the other hand, Africa registered 6.1% economic growth in 2007 – its highest economic growth ever – in part as a result of billions of dollars in Chinese investments. The dams, roads, bridges and railway lines built by Chinese firms are low cost, judged to be of good quality by experts and delivered in significantly less time than they would usually take in Africa, if at all completed.

Decades of aid and involvement in Africa by Western nations and institutions like the IMF and World Bank have done nothing to reduce poverty or drive developmental growth, Africa now has an opportunity to try a different development model with China. China being a developing country itself, may be in a better position to understand Africa’s development needs, while also doing more to advocate for Africa at international trade negotiations. In addition, China has effectively cultivated relations with African nations that would otherwise have remained isolated from the world on the basis of “no strategic importance” to Western countries. Nations like Sudan, Zimbabwe and Liberia – countries that are recovering from internal conflicts or have fallen out of the graces of Western powers.

In order to consolidate positive gains and strengthen the Sino-African partnership, Beijing cannot just focus on cutting deals and simply getting business done. It must reform its poor labor and environmental practices in Africa and proactively require its firms to implement sound Corporate Social Responsibility practices. This will be pivotal to the future success of Chinese firms in Africa, especially since many Western corporations who have had to pay for their past environmental atrocities in Africa will not hesitate to sound the alarm on foul Chinese practices. China must also expand its engagement beyond the governmental level and begin to engage more with African civil society, including direct involvement with the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations. This will allow for the rapid transfer of skills and technology and drive the development of mutually beneficial private partnership agreements between Chinese and African firms. Additionally, China must cultivate the hearts and minds of Africans and improve relations with Africans via cultural awareness programs and educational exchanges.

Africa must also do its part, in this partnership, in order to achieve maximum gains. While cheap manufactured products from China may help increase the standards of living of many Africans, they can also impede the growth of African industries and halt economic development. Africa must require that essential products be manufactured locally, especially using locally exploited raw materials, and implement appropriate tariffs and bans on such goods. This will help Africa achieve the necessary transfer of skill sets and technology, create employment for its citizens and build its much needed foreign reserves. African nations must also perform their due diligence on all aid offers from China to ensure that concessions are properly valued against aid offers and that maximum benefit is derived from such transactions. Africa should also avoid potential cycles of debt, whereby China provides commercial loans to nations that have just received debt relief. African nations must become assertive partners in this relationship, demanding more for their resources, especially given many interested bidders that include China, India, the EU and the US.

The China-Africa relationship can be a constructive partnership. It satisfies China’s need for diversified sources of markets and natural resources; and it enables African countries to effectively tap into global value chains, while delivering on much needed infrastructure development, affordable technology transfer, and jobs creation. However, both parties must agree to a fair and sustainable long-term development model and resist the temptation to plunder or slumber.

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Yona Fares Maro
I.T. Specialist and Digital Security Consultant