Beijing’s pivot towards Africa
For decades, China has funnelled money into the continent, but President Xi Jinping’s visit suggests political ambitions have taken over from economic ones
China’s approach to winning friends around the world has long been characterised as cheque-book diplomacy, with big events overseas invariably accompanied by top-dollar deals.
But President Xi Jinping’s ongoing visit to Africa seems to point to a shift, with China more concerned about politics than pure economics.
In opening remarks at the China-Africa Forum, both Xi and his African counterparts described each other as trusted friends. Xi characterised Beijing’s ties with South Africa as that of “comrade and brother”, prompting many to speculate about a new type of relations between Beijing and Pretoria.
However, most analysts agree that no matter what label is used, ties between China and the continent have reached their strongest point yet.
“The visit and the China-Africa summit definitely symbolise that relations have reached a new and historic high,” said He Wenping, an expert on Africa at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Zhiqun Zhu, the director of the China Institute at Bucknell University in the United States, said that China obviously wanted to build “close relations with Africa as both sides share common interests in promoting development and building a multipolar, sustainable and just world system”.
China is Africa’s top trade partner, with some US$222 billion of goods and services changing hands in 2014. He said that with the goal of forging a strategic partner, Beijing would promise additional state-backed investment to help develop local economies.
Much of it is likely to go to energy and transport. Over the past decade, US$29.97 billion, or 41 per cent of China’s total investment in Africa, has gone to energy projects, according to a database compiled by the American Enterprise Institute.
Chinese companies have won transport project contracts worth more than US$81.1 billion over the past decade – 49 per cent of the total value of Chinese construction contracts in the continent.
South Africa has been the recipient of the largest share of Chinese investment in Africa, seeing US$9.17 billion over the past decade. That is more by half what the second-highest, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recorded.
But the less developed countries of Nigeria and Algeria have signed greater construction contracts with Chinese companies. China has had projects worth US$24.65 billion in Nigeria and US$18.69 billion in Algeria, compared with only US$380 million in South Africa.
African countries have also benefited hugely from Chinese foreign aid in recent decades. Although Beijing does not disclose figures, estimates put the size at 2,500 projects across 51 African nations, worth about US$94 billion in total.
But as China now seeks out closer friends and diplomatic allies on the world stage in a push to assert itself as a major power, its focus is expected to shift away from pure economics and viewing the continent as a reliable source of energy and raw materials. In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Xi pledged 8,000 peacekeeping troops and US$1billion in funding to support the peace mission in Africa.
“Contributing peacekeepers in Africa or funding development, these are ways to build policy clout and wider acceptance as a great power,” said John Ciorciari, an assistant professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Analysts said China would be looking to garner political support for its policies, bolster relations with mineral-rich states and seek assurances over the threat posed by global militant groups.
Additional reporting by Andrea Chen
