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