Transcript Document

Assessing China’s Role in Africa:
A search for a new perspective
Firoze Manji
www.fahamu.org
www.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 lie
and 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
Other
7%
Latin America
37%
Af rica
3%
Asia
53%
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
35
30
30
19
20
15
11.5
10
5.5
3.5
5
1.9
1.9
1.6
C
hi
na
M
al
ay
si
a
In
di
a
er
m
an
y
Si
ng
ap
or
e
G
ce
Fr
an
U
SA
0
U
K
$ billions
25
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 m ine ral re s e rve s as % w orld re s e rve s
89
60
53
37
23
7
ic
6
oa
l
ke
l
7
C
10
N
12
IL
14
ol
d
Va
na
di
um
U
ra
ni
um
M
an
ga
ne
se
C
hr
om
iu
m
Ti
ta
ni
um
G
on
iu
m
Zi
rc
ob
al
t
15
O
28
C
Pl
at
in
um
D
ia
m
on
ds
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
China as exporter - comparison
Value of exports to Africa
by source ($ billions)
40
35
35
30
24
25
20
13
15
10
5
0
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: USA
No 2: France
No 3: China
Africa exports to China
•
•
•
•
•
Oil
Iron ore
Cotton
Diamonds
Logs
Volume of trade comparable to trade
with India
Imports from China
Mainly clothing and textiles:
• Sudan
• Ghana
• Tanzania
• Nigeria
• Ethiopia
• Uganda
• Kenya
Oil
China net importer of oil since 1993
China 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 China
Middle 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 China
2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation:
1. Double aid to Africa by 2009 (to $1 bn)
2. $5 bn fund for Chinese investment in Africa
3. Preferential loans ($3 bn) & buyers credits ($2
bn) for trade
4. 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 schools
7. Open special economic zones in 3 to 5 countries
US fears
The 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 socioeconomic 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 West
What 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 & USA
China’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
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