assessing china’s role in africa: a search for a new perspective firoze manji

Assessing China’s Role in Africa:A search for a new perspective

Firoze Manji

www.fahamu.orgwww.pambazuka.org

Rational and nuanced approach

• Threats

• Opportunities

• From an African, rather than Northern, perspective

China-Africa relationships• Over 3000 years old - evidenced by

ceramics in Timbuktu, Sahel, Great Zimbabwe and Mozambique

• 15th Century imperial fleet led by Admiral Zheng visited east Africa while on his global circumnavigatory expedition

• Today portrayed as the potential domineering force in Africa

Mythologies of China not new

China is a sleeping giant. Let her lieand sleep, for when she awakens

she will astonish the world.Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803

Nature of China’s engagement with Africa

New imperial ogre?Alternative paradigm of engagement?South-South partner?Different model of development?Exploiter with no regard for human

rights?Voracious destroyer of the

environment?

Conditions for China’s entry• Structural adjustment & liberalization• Failed promises: ‘tightening belts’• Aid, trade, investment conditional• Decline in the real wage• Opening up Africa’s markets

(globalization)• Washington Consensus opened

Africa for China

Conditions for China’s entry

• No history of colonization• No history of sponsoring coups• No history of assassination of

African leaders

China in Africa: 3 dimensions

• Foreign direct investment• Aid• Trade

FDI outflows from China

FDI flows to Africa remain low

China FDI flows to developing world

Africa3%

Asia53%

Latin America37%

Other7%

FDI and China

Only 3% of FDI outflows from China go to Africa

China is one of the world’s top recipients of FDI: nearly $72 billion and stock of $318 billion

Comparison of FDI in Africa

30

19

11.5

5.53.5

1.9 1.9 1.6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

UK USAFrance

GermanySingapore

IndiaMalaysia

China

$ billions

Greenfield FDI projects

Of 126 greenfield FDI projects in Africa, Indian companies accounted for the largest number

Malaysian companies dominate in mineral extraction

China’s FDI outflows to Africa

Africa is one of the richest continents in the world …

Africa's mineral reserves as % world reserves

89

6053

3728

2315 14 12 10 7 7 6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

PlatinumDiamondsCobalt

Zirconium

Gold

VanadiumUraniumManganeseChromiumTitanium

OILNickel Coal

China as exporter - comparison

Value of exports to Africaby source ($ billions)

35

24

13

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Asia France China

Trade and China

Significant growth in trade• $11 billion in 2000• $40 billiion in 2005• 9% annual growth rate• 5-fold increase in 10 years

Trade: China in 3rd place

No 1: USANo 2: FranceNo 3: China

Africa exports to China• Oil• Iron ore• Cotton• Diamonds• Logs

Volume of trade comparable to trade with India

Imports from ChinaMainly clothing and textiles:• Sudan• Ghana• Tanzania• Nigeria• Ethiopia• Uganda• Kenya

OilChina net importer of oil since 1993China is 2nd largest consumer of

petroleum products …USA remains the largest consumer,

with 25% of its requirements destined to come from Africa by 2009

Source of oil for ChinaMiddle East 40%Africa 23%Asia 21%Latin America destined to become

big: engagement with Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec)

Impact of imports

Aid and China2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation:1. Double aid to Africa by 2009 (to $1 bn)2. $5 bn fund for Chinese investment in Africa3. Preferential loans ($3 bn) & buyers credits ($2bn) for trade4. Debt cancellation for 31 HIPCs & LDCs ($1.4

bn)5. Train 15,000 African professionals, etc.6. Build 30 hospitals, 30 malaria treatment

centers, 100 rural schools7. Open special economic zones in 3 to 5

countries

US fearsThe most serious worry for the US was expressed by the spokespersons of the

IMF and World Bank who complained that China’s unrestricted lending had

‘undermined years of painstaking efforts to arrange conditional debt relief’.

Concerned that China could now offer favourable loans to Africa and weaken

imperial leverage over African economies. (Horace Campbell 2007)

A non-prescriptive approach?‘China’s official development discourse is

explicitly non-prescriptive, employing a language of ‘no strings attached’, quality and mutual benefit. It emphasises the collective right to development over the rights-based approaches focused on individual rights. Once the dust settles on the current China-in-Africa fever, and notions of China’s exceptionalism wear off, all involved will need to harness hopes to realistic vehicles in order to make the most of the current potential.’ Daniel Large (2007)

Potential for development?‘... there is no doubt that Chinese investments

in Africa are having and could continue to have some positive impacts. China is helping African countries to rebuild their infrastructure and providing other types of assistance to agriculture, water, health, education and other sectors. This could have very positive spin-offs in lowering transaction costs and assisting African governments to address social calamities such as poor health services, energy crisis, skills development, etc.’John Rocha (2007)

Environmental damage‘while China’s investments do involve socio-

economic development, environmental and social problems are emerging ‘with a new face’. Chan-Fishel looks at Chinese interests in Sudan, Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimababwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Liberia. ‘Chinese companies are quickly generating the same kinds of environmental damage and community opposition that Western companies have spawned around the world.’ Michelle Chan-Fishel 2007

Human rights and environment

• Support for repressive regimes“non-interference in internal affairs”

• Any worse than Western governments?

Hypocrisy of the WestWhat I find a bit reprehensible is the tendency

of certain Western voices to start making obstructionist [statements] or start raising concerns about China’s attempt to get into the African market because it is a bit hypocritical for Western states to be concerned about how China is approaching Africa when they have had centuries of relations with Africa, starting with slavery and continuing to the present day with exploitation and cheating. Kwesi Kwaa Prah

Conclusion• China’s capitalism has similar

demands to Western counterparts• Scale of its intervention is small in

comparison to those of European and North American powers

China & USAChina’s engagement cannot be understood

independent of the imperial expansion of the US in the global economy. “Chinese production and American consumption,” writes Walden Bello, “are like the proverbial prisoners who seek to break free from one another but cannot because they are chained together. This relationship is progressively taking the form of a vicious cycle.”

Conclusion‘Perhaps the material distinction is not

between Chinese capital and Western, but rather between the merely rapacious, and the more

sophisticated. Each of these are not two separate categories, but at least as much two different faces, each of

which may be presented as convenient.’

(Stephen Marks 2007).

Thank you

www.fahamu.orgwww.pambazuka.org