adminOarabile Mosikare Correspondent
The country and continent are old friends, what is new is the sheer size and scale of China’s involvement that now permeates every corner of Africa Although historians have documented China-Africa relations as far back as 200 AD, the most common history dates back to the 1950s shortly after
the communists came to power in China.
Both China and Africa have a history of colonialism and in the 1950s and 1960s, leaders of African liberation movements travelled to China to learn of that country’s fight against imperialism.
The Bandung Conference in April 1955 was the first major landmark in Asia-Africa relations.
“In its pursuit of friends in the bipolar Cold War international system, Beijing identified Africa’s newly independent nations as a key group with which to unite,” notes Yun Sun in research last year on Africa in China’s foreign policy.
“China saw natural common ground and bore a sense of empathy with Africa as a result of their shared experiences: Africa and China were both victims of colonisation by the capitalists and imperialists, and faced the same task of national independence and liberation after World War II.”
Thus China is not new in Africa, what is new is the size of its presence and the sheer scale of its involvement that now permeates every corner of Africa.
Sino-Africa relations have gone through three phases:
The first phase (1949-1978) saw most African countries gain independence and establish diplomatic relations with China under Mao Zedong. The main ties were through trade and technical assistance in grants.
The second stage (1979-1995) saw China undergo momentous reforms and modernisation under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Economic relations changed from grants and technical assistance to providing aid through engineering projects.
The third stage (1996 UP TO NOW) has seen new economic assistance policy focusing on provision of concessional loans to Chinese businesses to invest in Africa – and that partly explains the phenomenal growth of Chinese investment in Africa. This phase has seen China raise its uptake of raw materials from Africa, its biggest trading partner, and made its presence on the continent pervasive.
It is within this broad framework that China-Africa ties have evolved.
As Beijing went on the economic offensive, it saw a need for a platform through which it would collectively engage Africa, apart from bilateral ties it has with individual countries. The Forum on China-Africa Co-operation was born in 2000 and has been held in Beijing since. Bringing the summit to Africa is perhaps China’s way of recasting the perception of its relationship with Africa, showing that the much talked about “mutual relationship” is not only in word but also in deed.
That the new multi-billion dollar deals were signed in Johannesburg, and not in the Great Hall of the People, adds to the symbolism. African leaders will also walk away feeling “we brought China to Africa”, than the usual one-way traffic of them going to Beijing.
But China’s presence in Africa is not without critics and Beijing is aware of the criticism its presence on the continent attracts. However, it denies imperialist ambitions.
“We will not take the old path of Western colonists, and we will not sacrifice Africa’s ecological environment and long-term interests,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Nairobi in January, while on a tour that included Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
About one million Chinese are said to be living and working in Africa, a figure bandied around in most studies on Sino-Africa relations, with the latest being in Howard French’s book China’s Second Continent. Whatever the number, the fact is China’s march into Africa is not only massive but unstoppable. – African Independent.
Online Reporter