China-Africa Relations: Past, Present and Future

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China-Africa Relations Past, Present and Future

• Dr. HE Wenping
• Professor, Director of African Studies Section
  Institute of West Asian African Studies,
  Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

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• 1. Historical Heritage and Three Development
  Periods
• 2. Current Economic Cooperation
• 3. FOCAC and Its Impact
• 4. Opportunities, Trends and Challenges Ahead

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• 1. China-African relations Historical Heritage
• and Three Development Periods
• Long history can trace back to Han Dynasty
  2 BC, then Tang Dynasty. Wan Dayuan(???) in Yuan
  Dynasty travelled to 12 countries in North and
  East Africa and Ibn Battuta (?????)(1304-1377)fr
  om Morocco also travelled to China for two years.
  
• Zheng He (1371-1435) Great navigator in
  Ming Dynasty. Led a fleet of ships (the most
  advanced one at that time) and visited more than
  30 countries in South
• East Asia and the countries along Indian Ocean
  for 7 times since 1405. He visited East Africa
  (eg. Kenya and Tanzania) 4 times as well.
• Peace and good will visit (no slave taken, no
  land occupied)

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• Ming Dynasty
• Great Navigator
• Zheng He(1371-1435)

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First period (from the 1950s to the end of the
1970s) rich ideology and reinforcementof
political benefits

• Background
• Diplomatic isolation
• Three worlds divided theory
• Manifestation
• China support the African countries just
  struggle for national independence and against
  imperialism and colonialism
• China has actively helped the African countries
  develop their economies and consolidate
  independence (such as TaZara Railway)
• African countries supported Chinas
  reunification cause and resumption of Chinas
  legitimate seat at the United Nations

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Chairman Mao with Friends
from Asia, Latin America and Africa in 1959
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The biggest Chinese aid project to Africa, the
Tan-Zam Railway, began to be built in mid 1960s
and completed in 1975
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(No Transcript)
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Second period (whole decade of 1980s) weakening
ideology and valuing economic benefits

• Background
• the changes of Chinas domestic situation focus
  on modernization and economic development
• the changes of Chinas diplomatic strategy from
  ideological idealism to pragmatic realism, from
  the unconditional internationalism to the
  priority of the national interest

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• Manifestation
• Sino-African economic and trade relations have
  developed from the singular pattern of official
  aid between governments in the past into a
  mutually beneficial cooperation of diversified
  forms.

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• Third period (after the end of the cold war up to
  now) attaching importance to both political and
  economic benefits and developing bilateral
  relations in an all-round way
• Politically, China has always regarded Africa as
  its most reliable ally in the international
  stage. (voting power and strategic support for
  Chinas peaceful rising. frequent high level
  visits, former President Hu had visited Africa 6
  times, President Xi just visited Africa in March)
• Economically, to develop Sino-African relations
  is the requirement for Chinas economy to carry
  out sustainable development. (resources, market,
  investment)

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2. Current Economic Cooperation

• Trade improved rapidly. China is now the biggest
  trade partner of Africa, surpass US since 2009
• trade volume has been increased from
  10billion in 2000 up to 126.9 billion (2010),
  160 billion (2011) , over 200 billion (2012),
  30-35 annual growth rate in 10 years.
• strong complementary with each other
  Chinese manufacture products meet African demand
  and Africas resources meet Chinas huge demand
  for economic sustainable growth
• trade partners are quite concentrated among
  a few countries SA, Angola, Sudan, Egypt,
  Nigeria, Algeria, Congo(B)

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Chinas trade with Africa in total (billion)
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• New trend Trade structure has been gradually
  changed
• The share of high tech. products is increasing,
  account for more than half of Chinas export to
  Africa now, such as home appliances, mobile
  phones, autos, aircrafts, even satellites, etc.
• More African products are also seen in Chinese
  market and be fond by Chinese consumers, such as
  marble from Egypt, coffee from Cote dIvoire and
  Uganda, auto parts from South Africa, electronic
  products from Tunisia, tobacco from Zimbabwe,
  peanut oil from Senegal, cotton from Mali and
  cassava from Nigeria.
• However, resources products are still taking
  the lead in the trade at the moment. Africa is
  now the second largest crude oil resources to
  China.

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• Investment
• started from 1980, fast developed since 2001
• Signed mutual investment protect agreements with
  28 African countries, and refrain from dual
  taxes-levy treaties with 8 African countries
• grow from 50 million 2001 to nearly 1 billion
  annually in recent years (15 bn in total),
  Africa is now China's second largest overseas
  labor and project contracting market and fourth
  largest destination for outward investment.
• 2000 Chinese enterprises based in Africa
• Investments focus on agriculture, manufacture,
  communication, and mainly infrastracture areas
  such as irrigation, road/bridge, railway
  construction, hydropower station, etc.
• Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia
  are the main investment destination countries.

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• labour-contracted projects
• largely developed since 1979, accounting for
  39.44 billion by the end of 2008, 10 times that
  of 2000, and accounted for 31 of whole
  labour-contrated projects in the whole world.
  Africa is becoming the second largest market for
  China in this regard (1 to 2 million Chinese
  there)
• So far, Chinese companies have contracted in
  building more than 6000 km roads, 3400 km
  railways, and 8 hydropower stations.

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• 3. FOCAC and Its Impact
• (FOCAC Forum of China-Africa Cooperation)
• Background and significance of the Forum
• Proposed by some African countries and echoed by
  Chinese government
• The needs of strengthening consultation and
  cooperation in the new situation
• A new platform and a mechanism for regular
  bilateral exchanges and closer Sino-African
  cooperation
• The first of its kind in the history of
  Sino-African relations and in the 50 years of the
  Peoples Republic of Chinas diplomacy history

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• The first Forum Beijing 2000 Ministerial
  Conference
• Two documents issued the Beijing Declaration and
  the Programme of Cooperation on Economic and
  Social Development
• RMB 10 billion debts write-off to African
  countries within the set period of 2 years set
  up special foundations for encouraging Chinese
  enterprises to invest in Africa, and for helping
  training all kinds of African professional
  personnel.
• Mechanism design once every 3 years, rotation
  taking in China and Africa, avoid empty talk,
  detail measures in Action Plan based on mutual
  discussion, mainly demand-driven

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• The second Forum Addis Ababa 2003 Ministerial
  Conference
• Addis Ababa Action Plan (2004-2006) had been
  passed
• Major concrete measures including
• 1) increase the aids to Africa
• 2) further open Chinese market to African
  products and grant duty-free for some commodities
  produced by the least developed African
  countries
• 3) Increase 33 input for the African Human
  Resources Development Fund and training nearly 10
  thousand African talent in the next 3 years
• 4) Add 8 new African countries in the list of
  travel destination for Chinese tourists, etc.

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• The Third Forum Beijing 2006 Summit
• Eight measures have been announced
• Double assistance by 2009
• Provide loans and credits totaling US 5
  billion
• Set-up a Development Fund which will reach US
• 5 billion to encourage Chinese Companies
  investment
• Build a conference centre for the AU (hand over
  in early 2012)
• Debt Cancel
• Further Open up Chinas Market to African
  commodities (from previous 190 to 440 items)
• Establish 3-5 Trade Economic Cooperation
  Zones( Nigeria-Guang Dong Cooperation
  Zone(China-Zambia Cooperation Zone,Raiki Free
  Trade Zone in Nigeria,Suez Cooperation Zone in
  Egypt,Oriental Industrial Park in
  Ethiopia,Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in
  Mauritius)
• Train 15,ooo African Professionals, build 100
  rural schools, dispatch 100 agriculture experts
  and 300 youth volunteers, build 30 hospitals and
  30 malaria treatment centres, increase
  scholarships for African students from 2000 to
  4000 per year,etc

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The 2006 FOCAC Summit Opening Ceremony
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• The Fourth Forum 2009 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt
  Ministerial Conference
• New Eight measures have been announced
• Establish a China-Africa partnership in
  addressing climate change, to build 100 clean
  energy projects for Africa covering solar power,
  bio-gas and small hydro-power .
• Enhance cooperation with Africa in science and
  technology, will carry out 100 joint
  demonstration projects with Africa on scientific
  and technological research and receive 100
  African postdoctoral fellows to conduct
  scientific research in China
• Help Africa build up financing capacity. China
  would provide 10 billion U.S. dollars in
  concessional loans to African countries, and
  setting up a special loan of 1 billion dollars
  for small- and medium-sized African businesses,
  cancel African countries debts due to mature by
  the end of 2009

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• Further open up Chinas market to African
  products. phase in zero-tariff treatment to 95
  percent of the products from the least developed
  African countries, starting with 60 percent of
  the products within 2010.
• Enhance cooperation with Africa in agriculture.
  increase the number of agricultural technology
  demonstration centers in Africa to 20, send 50
  agricultural technology teams to Africa and train
  2,000 African agricultural technology personnel.
• Deepen cooperation in medical care and health.
  provide medical equipment and anti-malaria
  materials worth RMB 500 million ( 73.2 million)
  to the 30 hospitals and 30 malaria prevention and
  treatment centers built by China and train 3,000
  doctors and nurses for Africa.

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• Enhance cooperation in human resources
  development and education. China would build 50
  schools and train 1,500 school principals and
  teachers for African countries. By 2012, China
  would increase the number of Chinese government
  scholarships to Africa to 5,500, and would also
  train 20,000 professionals for Africa over the
  next three years.
• Expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
  China proposes to launch a China-Africa joint
  research and exchange program to increase
  exchanges and cooperation, share development
  experience, and provide intellectual support for
  formulating better cooperation policies by the
  two sides

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• The Fifth Forum 2012 Beijing Ministerial
  Conference in July
• Five priority areas announced by then Chinese
  President Hu Jintao at the opening meeting
• the financing ( 20 billion credit loans)
• development assistance (highly related with
  peoples livelihood, human resources training)
• Africans integration (transnational
  infrastructure projects)
• people to people relations (NGOs
  interactions)
• peace and security (train African
  peace-keeper, support African stand-by forces,
  etc.)

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• The Impact of FOCAC
• Bilaterally, an New Impulse for Promoting
  Sino-African Relations
• (mechanism for collective dialogue, Africa is
  high in Chinas foreign agenda, e.g. White paper
  on Chinas Africa Policy issued in early 2006)
• Internationally, the appearance of Africa
  fever , Africa is now back to the centre of
  world stage (Korea-Africa Summit , EU-Africa
  Summit , India-Africa Summit, Turkey-Africa
  Summit, etc).
• In Africa, heated debate about forming African
  strategy towards China builds on, ownership
  building process

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4. Future Opportunities, Trends Challenges

• Opportunities and Trends
• Developed countries are still struggling with
  economic and debt crisis (stagnation has replaced
  growth) , their investment and aid in Africa is
  decreasing
• South-South cooperation is getting new momentum
  (from BRIC to BRICS, shared development between
  emerging economies and Africa). By SA Standard
  Bank Report (2013/2), BRICS-Africa trade has
  grown faster than its trade with any other
  region. Its total trade with Africa reached 340
  billion in 2012, tenfold increase over the
  decade. BRICS-Africa trade will surpass 500
  billion by 2015, roughly 60 will be China-Africa
  trade

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• Africas Rising (the last frontier better off in
  governance and stability, economic growth, middle
  class expanding..)
• Looking East strategy in Africa (Ethiopia?South
  Africa?Rwanda, etc.)
• Chinas Africa Policy moving forward with the
  time (many new focuses NGO contact and soft
  power building, etc.)
• As China shifts from exporter to investor,
  Chinas presence in Africa will refocus from
  trade to investment

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Challenges Ahead

• In general, need to address several changes
• from quantity expansion to quality priority
  
• from hardware to software mutual
  understanding, research capacity buliding
• from trade to investment
• tech. transfer and local employment
• from bilateral to multilateral African
  regional integration (AU now is member of FOCAC)
• from government-government to people-people

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• Challenges in economic cooperation
• Localization and Corporate Social
  Responsibility (CSR) issue employment of local
  labor and communicate with each other (language
  hurdle)
• 2) technical transfer from give fish to teach
  fishing (training centre)
• 3) maintain and sustainable development of the
  infrastructure projects
• (handover or joint-management)

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• Challenges in people-people exchanges
• (esp. NGO exchanges)
• Strong demand
• Bilateral relations are not only determined by
  State, government, military, Party and elite,
  NGOs are rising
• NGOs can help to clear up or build up those
  misunderstandings between China and Africa
  (neo-colonialism, resources-plunder, African
  discrimination, etc)

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• Situation changes both in Africa and China
• In Africa NGOs develop quickly and play an
  increasing important role in the society
  (post-Cold War democracy development, civil
  society, media)
• In China Government has begun to attach
  importance to NGOs as well. (the number of NGOs
  is growing dramatically, the areas NGOs have
  involved in is expanding greatly as well)

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• Some differences
• In Africa NGOs develops much earlier, have
  joined political movement (anti-apartheid and
  anti-authoritarian regime) for long time and also
  involved in international affairs.
• In China NGOs are still in early development
  stage, more works have still been engaged in
  social (such as environmental protection) and
  economic fields. Few activities are related with
  international issues.

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• China now is catching up
• Institutional building
• Chinese NGO Network for International Exchanges
  was established in 2005. (sponsored for writing a
  book titled The African NGOs and Sino-African
  Relations and hosted a conference in late 2009)
• International Poverty Reduction Center in China
  (IPRCC) was established in late 2004. (DAC-China
  study group anti-poverty experience sharing and
  several workshops, publications,)
• China-Africa Business Council established in
  2005, promoting Chinese private companies
  investing in Africa

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• more activities
• Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship
  with Foreign Countries long history,established
  in 1954 (mutual visiting and training)
• Chinese Peoples Association for Peace and
  Disarmament (CPAPD),established in 1985 (held a
  conference titled China-Africa Civil Society
  Forum on Peace and Development in early June
  2010 in Beijing)
• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is in action
  as well. (Chinese Africanists delegation visited
  Africa, Chinese-African Civil Society Dialogue
  held in Kenya in 2008)
• Youth volunteers dispatching about 300

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• Finally, Challenges in Security risk (killing
  and kidnapping)
• Only in 2012, several cases happening
• In Sudan 29 Chinese workers kidnapped, one
  died
• Egypt Sinai Peninsula and Cairo
• Republic of Congo (munitions depot blast 6
  died, 31 wounded)
• Before, in Ethiopia, 2007, rebel attack in the
  evening, 9 killed, 7 kidnapped
• South Africa criminal rate high, 1 killed on
  10th March,2012
• Key how to balancenon-interference policy and
  play active role in security issue?

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• Thank you for your attention!!!