Transcript South-South Conceptions of Aid Effectiveness: The

Over a barrel:
China’s oil diplomacy in Africa
UC-Santa Cruz
Winter 2008 Global Issues Colloquium
Oil, Africa and the Global War on Terror
Giles Mohan
Open University
Spot the difference?
Mid-1970s
2006
‘Ideology’ versus ‘business’
When business is political
"With this in mind, I find that my conscience will not allow
me to continue with business as usual“
(February 2008)
Key arguments
• We need to situate China-Africa relations in
terms of the global economy and not overplay
China’s role.
• We need to go beyond simplistic either/or
arguments or those which demonise China.
• China’s interests in Africa are not new and its
current focus on resources is not dissimilar from
other industrializing countries down the years.
• That said while Chinese ‘aid’ is used to further
both economic and geopolitical claims it has
been different
China’s oil dependency
China’s foreign policy: ‘flexible’,
‘harmonious’ and ‘peaceful’
• Foreign policy is flexible,
differentiated and proactive
• Post-Mao focus on
modernisation of PRC economy,
access to foreign markets,
capital & technology
• Post-Tiananmen re-evaluation
of foreign policy, focus on
access to energy resources and
efforts to counter US hegemony
• Resource diplomacy, ‘soft
power’ & support for China in
multilateral agencies
China’s diplomatic offensive
• A permanent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)
• 2004-7, President Hu Jintao has visited Africa
three times, dispensing billions of dollars of debt
relief (US$80m in Sudan alone)
• China plans to open five trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa by 2009
• A US$5 billion China-Africa Development Fund
was launched in 2006
• In 2006 China published the equivalent of a
White paper entitled China’s Africa strategy
Official Chinese visits in 2006
China’s 2006 Africa Strategy
“Enhancing solidarity & cooperation with African countries has always
been an important component of China's independent foreign policy
of peace. China will unswervingly carry forward the tradition of
China-Africa friendship, and, proceeding from the fundamental
interests of both the Chinese & African peoples, establish & develop
a new type of strategic partnership with Africa, featuring political
equality & mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation & cultural
exchange” (2006, China’s Africa Strategy)
‘Aid’ delivery
•Traditionally unclear what China
thinks of as ‘aid’
•Aid often tied to other forms of
assistance & economic co-operation
•China avoids the status of ‘donor’ &
the word ‘aid’ is often avoided
•The volume of Chinese aid regarded
as a state secret
•High levels of poverty within China
makes aid a sensitive issue but not
one widely debated
China: the anti-imperialist
“If one day China should change her
colour and turn into a superpower, if
she too should play the tyrant in the
world, and everywhere subject
others to her bullying, aggression
and exploitation, the people of the
world should identify her as socialimperialism, expose it, oppose it
and work together with the Chinese
people to overthrow it” (Deng
Xiaoping Speech at special session
of the UN General Assembly, 1974).
Down with America, down with
Soviet Union
•Cold war context, ideology &
geopolitics, confrontation with the U.S
(1950s/60s) & U.S.S.R (1960s/70s)
•Afro-Asian solidarity based on shared
history, common enemies, and
‘revolution’
•Countering international recognition
of Taiwan
•Aid programmes aimed to ‘show up
the North’ (Snow, 1995)
• Missionary like convictions of being
morally ‘right’
Cold war nationalist solidarity
TanZam: the spirit of solidarity
Import/export composition
China’s oil investment
Chinese FDI to Africa
Oil forecasts
Sudan: The core of China’s African
oil strategy
Growth in Sudanese oil production
Tensions
“Among ordinary people, a very strong resentment, bordering on
racism, is emerging against the Chinese...It’s because the Chinese are
seen as backing the [African] governments in oppressing their own
people” (Melber 2007)
The everyday
The organised
China: the excuse?
• Chinese oil interests
relatively small
• China’s largesse
understandable given
state of world oil markets
• China’s stance on
governance is changing
Chinese oil in comparative
perspective
The China hawks: Rogue aid and
the dictator dividend
“development assistance that is
non-democratic in origin and
nontransparent in practice. Its
effect is typically to stifle real
progress while hurting average
citizens…threat to healthy,
sustainable
development…effectively pricing
responsible and well meaning
organizations out of the market in
the very places they are needed
most” (Naim, 2007)
Not quite panda huggers, but…
• Dialogue to bring China in to
the donor ‘fold’
• “it is in Africa where we would
like to work more closely with
China…To achieve lasting
poverty reduction in Africa
donor and recipient
governments must work
together to make the most
effective use of aid.” (Benn
2004)
• Use existing initiatives
Conclusion
 Greater Chinese
involvement in capacity
building and governance
 Blurred lines of Chinese
influence
 Tentative multilateralism
 The ‘revival of
triangulation’
 China’s own
‘development’, China as
net debtor
More of the same?
 Will China’s
engagement with
Africa radically alter
Africa’s
‘extraverted’
relationship to the
global economy?
 Or does China
simply offer a
different version of
neoliberalism?