At a China-Africa summit held on 8th November, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, and attended by several heads of state, including ICC-indicted Omar Bashir of Sudan, the Chinese premier Wen Jaibao offered African countries US$ 10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years. The aid offer is double that granted at the previous summit in Beijing in 2006, which African heads of state took by storm, and which was considered a historical landmark for being the start of Western decline in the developing world.
Besides the loans Wen said China would help Africa develop clean energy and cope with climate change as well as cooperate in science and technology. He also promised to expand market access for African products; 95 per cent of the products from the least-developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China will have zero-tariff, starting with 60 per cent of the products next year. He said his government would support Chinese financial institutions in setting up a $1 billion fund to lend to small- and medium-sized African businesses; and that more debts will be cancelled.
In the fight against climate change China will build 100 clean energy projects, including solar power, biogas and small-scale hydro-power plants. To boost food security, China will send 50 agriculture technology teams to Africa and train 2,000 experts in the field. They will also train 3,000 doctors and nurses as well as 1,500 teachers and build 50 schools. By 2012 China wants to increase the number of scholarships available to African students to 5,500 and 100 post-doctoral fellowships for scientific research in China.
In the past decade trade between Africa and China has leapt ahead. African airlines now make regular flights to Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai, packed with African businessmen and women in search of both high-quality and cheap goods; and Chinese engineers and traders in search of African resources to drive its economic boom, and satisfy the African demand for cheap products.
Beijing’s relations with Africa date back many centuries when the first explorers landed on the East African coast. Chinese pottery has been found at Malindi in Kenya, and there are written records of giraffe taken back to the emperor’s court as a gift. Relations were renewed in the middle of the last century when China backed liberation movements, especially in southern Africa.
China has been criticized by Western countries for turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in the countries it trades with, and that its only interest is to grab resources. “China’s support for African development is real and solid,” Wen told the summit, “and no matter what turbulence the world undergoes, our friendship with the people of Africa will not change.” He repeated that China would not interfere in the political affairs and social systems of any African country; with no strings attached. The Chinese press has backed him up saying that Europe still thinks of Africa as its colony and is naturally not happy at this new relationship. Some Africans welcome the new approach. Kwaku Atuahene-Gime, executive director of the African programme at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai said “China’s policy is based on mutual development. Few Western countries have a foreign policy like this – most are about telling Africans what to do.”
Many Africans within the continent think that Western values are sometimes insincere and ambivalent. Western powers supported abusive regimes during the Cold War, the notable example being Mobutu’s Zaire (Congo), and many still support mineral-wealthy countries in Africa with poor human rights records. Many also are critical of imported Western values, entertainment and life-styles, and the pressures to reduce family size and legalise abortion. Besides, they argue, Western countries plundered us both before and after Independence, and now tell us how to govern ourselves and spend our money. At least the Chinese just do trade.
Western powers built Africa’s basic infrastructure; cities like Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Nairobi and Salisbury (now Harare) were model colonial capitals with excellent facilities. Now it is the Chinese who are building the huge sports stadiums found in almost every African capital, the smooth highways linking key cities, and health and educational facilities, and it is Chinese goods that are cheap and readily available in African roadside kiosks.
Africans, especially the young generations, identify quite easily with many Western customs and ways of thinking. China’s millennial culture is alien to Africa, even though people-to-people and cultural exchanges are part of the new partnership; there are few points in common, except doing business. But during the past almost fifty years the West has not, with few exceptions, really trained Africa to maintain and develop itself; will China manage to do so? And will China resist the temptation to interfere in the way African countries run their affairs? Only time will tell.
Martyn Drakard is a writer and analyst who works in Uganda and Kenya.
RSS