Celebrating a half century of dealings with Africa, China’s policies still wear the cloak of ideology but are increasingly driven by a cold-eyed self-interest.
When it tied the diplomatic knot with Egypt in 1965 Beijing was speaking of mutual respect and mutual benefit — a refrain it maintained for the next 40 years or more.
Projects such as the Tanzam Railway in the early 1970s demonstrated China’s political solidarity in Africa and its understanding of the continent’s development needs.
It was still pretty much in this mode that Beijing established relations with South Africa in 1998. With the establishment of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum six years ago, there were the first signs that Beijing wanted to occupy the driving seat in its relations with the continent.
Chinese officials wanted the forum to be a fan club rather than a forum for frank exchanges. South Africa resisted because its economic weight makes it China’s business gateway to Africa.
Premier Wen Jiabao’s seven-nation visit to Africa currently underway — including a two day stop in Cape Town — starkly illustrates the new, colder-eyed Chinese approach to Africa.
Dr Martyn Davies, CEO of Emerging Markets Focus and head of the School of Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University says China’s Africa emphasis moved from the political to the economic. “China’s policy is driven by the search for energy security and security energy assets. The concentration is on Nigeria, Angola and Sudan.
“South African commercial dominance on the continent makes it a strategic partner. China uses this term very sparingly. Angola is an example of this. Most of Angola’s exports, particularly oil, go to China and Sudan is also moving in this direction. Africa also provides increased market space for consumer goods from China.
“Trade with Africa currently constitutes less than 2% of Africa’s world trade, but it is growing rapidly and will continue to do this with the rise of the African consumer.
“The drivers of the Chinese agenda in the 1960s were political . I don’t think there was a long-term economic perspective. China wanted the political support of the African nations unencumbered by European traditions.”
Until the turn of the century, Africa was a solid anti-hegemonic voting bloc for China at organisations such as the United Nations, prepared to take an uncritical line on human rights in China.
Now Africa has become a vital source of oil for a country with a population of more than 1,2-billion and an insatiable appetite for energy.
China has returned Africa’s myopic favour.
It regularly makes deals with Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe, apparently oblivious of its growing international pariah status.
Beijing has threatened to use its veto in the UN Security Council to block sanctions being slapped on the government of Sudan for what many members have openly called its genocidal policies in Darfur.
It accelerates economic relations with Angola without so much as a passing reference to the rampant corruption that skims off 20% of that country’s foreign earnings into the pocket of the ruling elite.