Beijing: The China-Africa Summit 2006, Africa bloggers weigh-in

I have to smile while writing this post today as I reflect on the flurry of activity in the international press and TV news media over the China-Africa Summit in Beijing. Fortunately while I was checking for updates last month at Jennifer Brea’s Africabeat, a weblog about the political and economic development of Africa with a special focus on the relationship between Africa and China, I noticed her post about an upcoming major summit in Beijing. This of course helped me prepare for the global news coverage of the summit that was to come, but I never expected such wide-ranging coverage of this important summit by so many different news services, research institutions and think tanks, government press services, and the international blogger community.

Throughout 2006 blog authors and readers covering news about Africa have had sometimes brutal arguments (O.K., tough-talk dialogues) about the massive investments China has been making recently into Africa, especially the rush to buy-up valuable rights and concessions to Africa’s natural resources: oil and gas, minerals and timber. A sampling of some of those blog posts are listed below:

Chippla’s Weblog
China-Africa Summit – 11/04/06
China in Angola – 04/10/06
The Future of Africa is Not China – 04/20/06
From China Town to Oil Deals – 04/27/06
Our Changing World: Emerging Giants – 09/27/06
From Confucianism to Capitalism – 10/03/06

Africabeat
China in Africa; China is not the (only) devil – 08/06/06
China-Africa Business Council Meeting – 10/26/06
Jen’s China in Africa archives

Jewels in the Jungle
China in Africa: The CNOOC Nigerian Deal – 01/10/06
U.S.-China Relations: An Apology of Sorts – 05/03/06

Also see Grandiose Parlor (earlier blog), My Heart’s in Accra, Black Looks, et Al.

It would be uncharacteristic of me to remain silent about my opinions on this latest summit in Beijing as it holds so much promise for helping to improve the plight of millions of African people as well as presents new challenges and opportunities to Africa’s traditional trade partners and donor countries, namely the “Western nations” or the “rich countries” or whatever you prefer to call them.

Although Jennifer has taken the lead in keeping me up-to-date, Chippla has offered the 1st comprehensive summary on his thoughts about the summit and the promises and pledges made by China’s President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. I’m still busy reading reports and articles and organizing my thoughts about this important event and hopefully will be ready with my own summaries (it’s a big subject, one post can’t cover it) in another day or two or three. In the meantime, I would like to share this opening dialogue with you:

Excerpt from Chippla’s Weblog post “China-Africa Summit” – 11/04/06

The Beijing Summit on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) opened today, the 4th of November 2006. It will run till the 5th of November. Probably the largest gathering of African leaders ever, outside United Nations General Assembly meetings, the summit is aimed at strengthening China-Africa relations. According to the state-controlled China Central Television International (CCTV), forty-one African Heads of State and forty-eight Heads of Government were present in Beijing for the summit, with hundreds of trade negotiators and business people. These alone hint at the significance of the summit.

China's interest in Africa is, without a doubt, greatly linked to the latter's huge pool of natural resources, much of which remain untapped. And with rapid development and modernization occurring across China, there is an increasing need for raw materials to continue fueling such development. African leaders in a position of strength (those who govern nations rich in resources of interest to China) must negotiate sensibly. The need to gradually curtail the export of raw materials and focus on the processing or conversion of such materials before export has become all too obvious. Non knowledge-based societies would simply be unable to compete favorably in today's fast-changing world.

According to this report in the People's Daily Online, trade between China and Africa reached almost $40 billion in 2005, four times more than it was in 2000. China has also granted tariff waivers to certain export items from the least developed African countries, as well as offered to train thousands of African professionals. Furthermore, China View reports that the Chinese Premier (Prime Minister), Wen Jiabao, has called on both parties to work together towards increasing bilateral trade volume to $100 billion in four years time.

Chinese involvement on the African continent is not without criticism. Most notable among these is its desire to deal and trade with Sudan, despite the ongoing conflict and killing of innocent civilians in Darfur province. The Chinese government should use its influence on Sudan to press for a speedy resolution of the conflict. The quiet diplomacy, which it claims to be employing, doesn't seem to be working.

For now, China appears to be doing something which neither the United States nor Europe did—engaging Africa. Whether this is solely driven by China's need for raw materials or also to increase its global sphere of influence would be debated for a long time to come. The President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, has described the China-Africa partnership as a partnership of equals (Botswana is one of the most stable democracies on the African continent). When it comes to dealing with Europe and the United States on the other hand, he sees a relationship between masters and subjects.

Like the rest of the world, this blog has watched China's increasing presence on and interest in the African continent for the past couple of years. From outright skepticism the position of this blog became one which cautiously accommodates China's increasing role on Africa's development. However, the fact remains that African nations are largely raw material exporters and until that changes, true partnership would be anything but achieved.

When China rolls out the red carpet for African leaders and decorates Beijing with billboards that read "Beautiful Africa", it unavoidably sends out a message to governments in Europe and the United States. While such marketing may have unconsciously boosted the morale and confidence of the African leaders and business negotiators in Beijing, it leaves the rest of the world guessing what China's exact ambitions might be. (Read more…)


Excerpt from my comment to Chippla’s post “China-Africa Summit”:

Good job Chippla on summarizing your thoughts about the China-Africa Summit in Beijing. I too was impressed with the reception the Beijing government has extended to the African heads of state and key ministers and to important African businesspeople. The announcements by the PRC regime that it will double aid, double trade to $100 bn dollars by 2010, write off an additional $1bn in debt, build hospitals and schools, increase training for African professionals, and so forth and so on sounds just great. Lord knows that most African countries can use all the help they can get.

The problem is these are pledges that have yet to be put into action just as the promises and pledges of the world's leading economies (the G7) made last year at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles. An additional problem is that China continues to prop-up not only repressive regimes in Africa, but murderous regimes in Africa such as Bashir's regime in Khartoum and Mugabe's regime in Harare (did I spell that right?). Then there are the less-than-desirable unfair business practices of continuing to use bribes and other perks to win lucrative contracts for building infrastructure and gaining access to the valuable natural resources that a handful of African nations have to trade with the rest of the world. Let's not forget China's involvement in the illegal trade in small arms and munitions on the continent or the fact that it supplies unstable regimes with high-end military hardware such as the attack helicopters used by Sudan in Darfur or the Chinese MIG's supplied to Zimbabwe. I could go on and on but why bother [as] the list of negatives is sooooo long.

I remain skeptical of the PRC's true intentions for the people of Africa and I am certain that the loathed Western nations will counter China's generous offers with some new initiatives and investments of their own. Let's not forget that trade with the U.S.A. and the E.U. account for more than 50% of the export revenues earned by African countries in 2005 and that figure excludes key African trading partners such as Australia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Korea, and some Middle Eastern nations. China's trade and investments is still "chump change" in comparison, so let's not get carried away. Lastly, a slow-down in China's booming economy will have a direct impact on China's trade with Africa, especially in the demand for commodities such as minerals and oil and gas.

At the end of the day it is a matter for the people of Africa and their elected leaders (and non-elected dictators and despots) to decide, not the countries of North and South America or Europe or Asia. How best to use your precious and limited, finite natural resources and your unlimited human resources to build a better future for your children, and yourselves.

- End of excerpts -

Stay tuned for Round Two "The Battle for Africa's Hearts and Minds... and Black Gold"

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