foreign relations

Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia on Sino-African relations

Posted by Olivia Wainwright at 3:48 pm China vs. the West, In the News, Interviews No Responses »

Jul 292011

Zeray Hailemariam from the Walta Information Centre interviewed the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, Gu Xiaojie, this week, about the relationship between the two countries and China’s special relationship which Africa.

China has had a relationship with Ethiopia for over 40 years. Gu Xiaojie said that the countries share mutual trust that there has been an increase in relations between the two countries.

Trade

According to Gu Xiaojie there are “healthy trade ties” between the two countries. China has invested heavily in Ethiopia’s National Network of Telecommunications. Its has also seen a 30% increase in imports from Ethiopia, while China’s exports to Ethiopia have also increased. Gu also said that China provides as much economic assistance to Ethiopia as it can, but that China’s ability to extend aid is limited because it is still a developing country. He emphasised that the relationship between the two countries is more than purely economical, saying there is also a relationship between the peoples of the two countries.

“The people to people relationship is the important one which laid foundation to the over all relations, we see more people coming from China to Ethiopia to do business, studying, working groups and other to get know each other.”

Investment

The Chinese ambassador believes that there are currently over 130 Chinese investors in Ethiopia. While in the past investment was more clear cut, it now appears that investors are diversifying their investments in the country.

“The unique characteristics of the Chinese investment are the ever growing interest of Chinese investors to invest in Ethiopia in diversification. Leather processing and building materials were the first investment sectors by Chinese in Ethiopia. But they are expanding and diversifying to other areas.”

Indirect Colonialism

Zeray Hailemariam asked the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia about his views on China’s activities in Africa being labelled indirect colonialism. Gu Xiaojie argued that Africa has chosen Chinese involvement.

“From some media, I have read some irresponsible accusations made in this regards. What convincing them to do this unwarranted accusation against China could be the fact that African Governments and the people are in the best position to make a judgement on China’s involvement.”

Gu accused the Western media of portraying the Chinese government as only taking natural resources from Africa. He emphasized that the relationship between Africa and China is not colonial, but brotherly.

“China and Africa know how to treat each other on equal basis and of course the African people have acknowledged and developed sincerity to the Chinese helps.”

Climate Change

Gu Xiaojie also said that China wants to reduce carbon emissions as it recognises that the country has a fifth of the world’s population, but blamed developed nations, which have, he said, been polluting for decades. He said China is working with African countries to reduce emissions. For example, in the Africa China Cooperation Forum, it aims to develop new sources of clean energy with African countries.

Why the US just doesn’t have a chance against the Chinese in Africa

Posted by Eric Olander at 10:13 pm China vs. the West, The Beijing Consensus 2 Responses »

Dec 132010

Africans across the continent are likely to have reacted with puzzlement to one of the latest revelations from the stream of leaked United States diplomatic cables from the controversial whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. After a century of aggressive United States economic, political and military engagement in Africa, particularly during the Cold War, it is laughably ironic that Washington is somehow dismayed that China’s foreign policy in the region may not be entirely benevolent.

While history may conclude that the ends did justify the means in the resolution of the Cold War, Africa undeniably paid an extraordinarily high price for its role in American foreign policy during that period. Whether it was Washington’s alliance with brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, Ronald Reagan’s embrace of Jonas Savimbi in Angola or its support of the apartheid government in Pretoria as an anti-communist bulwark.

By any measure, the United States was, and remains, deeply invested in Africa for its own, narrow geo-political interests. And when considered in that context, it is somewhat surprising that the United States appears to be dismayed that China, like other countries, is aggressively pursuing its own economic, political and even military interests in Africa.

In a memo transmitted from the United States Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria on February 23, 2010, Washington’s top diplomat on African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, said: “China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons, China is in Africa for China primarily.”

The fact that Carson framed the issue in moralistic terms is fascinating because it reveals so much about how the United States still regards its foreign policy as somehow above the fray, almost with a divine sense of self-righteousness. Implicit in his response is that Washington is in Africa not for its own interests but for the benefit of Africa in pursuit of some “altruistic” purpose. Again, this must seem painfully ironic to those familiar with the history of American foreign policy on the continent.

The Assistant Secretary of State goes on to explain that Washington’s tolerance of Beijing’s engagement in Africa does in fact have its limits if China crosses one of the White House’s so-called “tripwires.”

“Have they signed military base agreements? Are they training armies? Have they developed intelligence operations? Once these areas start developing then the US will start worrying,” Carson said.

So the United States seemingly has nothing to worry about until Beijing embarks on a policy to significantly enhance the militarization of its African foreign policy? Right? Well, it appears that Washington’s perspective adheres to that old adage, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

If Carson’s narrow-minded focus on the militarization of Chinese foreign policy is the benchmark of when to “worry” about the competition from the Chinese and his characterization of China’s engagement in Africa in such stark moralistic terms, then the United States truly does not understand the challenge that it is up against and likely stands only a slim chance of mounting an effective policy of its own.

For an American, such as myself, it’s hard to decide whether to laugh… or cry.

China in Africa Podcast: Aid vs. Trade

Posted by Eric Olander at 9:30 am Chinese in Africa 4 Responses »

Oct 282010

China in Africa Podcast: Aid, Trade and Indignation by ChinaTalkingPoints

There’s a vigorous debate over just how many hundreds of billions of dollars the West has sent to Africa in the form of “aid” over the past half-century since colonial independence. Some estimates suggest a total of trillions, while the OECD and others claim it’s merely in the 800 billion dollar range. Regardless, the sums are huge. That said, the amount of money is not what’s in question, the more pressing issue is what has all this “aid” actually accomplished?

The “Aid” Business

Each year NGOs, state actors and multilateral organizations like the UN pour ever greater sums of money into African states and rarely, if ever, are they actually held to account for the effectiveness of these costly programs. Despite ever growing aid and development budgets, many of the key poverty indicators across Africa remain stubbornly high.

Aid industry critic and NYU professor William Easterly argues that the aid business itself is partially to blame. The high level of professional incompetence on the part of too many young and inexperienced aid “experts” mixed with the economic distortions that result from the billions of aid dollars that flow through these countries often combine to form a toxic mix with debilitating consequences.

Enter the Chinese

Ten years after the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that marked Beijing’s renewed enthusiasm for African engagement, the surge of Chinese investment, migration and influence across the continent is unmistakable. Like the West, the Chinese are pouring billions of dollars into Africa. But that money is largely used to support an aggressive agenda to acquire natural resources with complex cash and infrastructure deals.

Beijing’s so-called “No Strings Attached” trade-based approach has sparked the ire of Western governments and the aid industry who largely dismiss the Chinese as neo-mercantalists, even neo-colonials. That indignation, though, is prompting a growing number of analysts to raise their eyebrows. Fellow African Boots blogger and Beijing-based policy analyst Bradley Gardner highlighted in a recent article, “Aid, Trade & Some Indignation,” the inherent contradiction of EU and US states generously subsidizing their agricultural sectors, because this ultimately prevents developing world farmers from selling their goods at a fair market value and subsequently impoverishes these states, making them more dependent on Western aid.

The recent shooting of Zambian mine workers by Chinese supervisors and the well-documented corruption that accompanies many of China’s massive natural resource deals are indicative that Beijing’s African foreign policy is troubled in equally challenging ways. However, the Chinese rejection of the Western aid model and the emphasis on trade deserves our attention. After all, in a short period of time, China has pulled more people out of subsistence poverty than any other society in human history – with only minimal international assistance.

Jacob Zuma on the Yellow BRIC Road

Posted by Iain Manley at 6:57 pm In the News, Timeline No Responses »

Aug 242010

South African president Jacob Zuma arrived in Beijing on a state visit yesterday, with a large trade delegation in tow. China is Zuma’s last stop on his tour of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries, where he is trying to drum up investment to create job growth at home. He is scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President and prime ministerial heir apparent Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders, before flying to Shanghai on Thursday to visit the World Expo.

Among the delegation accompanying Zuma is the CEO of South African petrochemicals company SASOL, Pat Davies. Davies is in China to hear the results of a review assessing SASOL’s $10 billion bid to construct a coal to liquid project in partnership with local company Shenhua Ningxia. The deal is said to be the largest single-project joint venture in Chinese history. SASOL’s technology, developed when sanctions forced South Africa to search for alternatives to oil, has an obvious appeal in China, where coal is plentiful but oil scarce.

South Africa and China have a complicated relationship atypical of Chinese relations with the rest of the continent. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner and last year overtook the United States to become the country’s largest export destination. Although much of South Africa’s exports are unprocessed minerals and other raw materials, the two countries are also competitors and partners in the rest of Africa. Chinese bank ICBC owns a 20% stake in South Africa’s Standard Bank, which operates in 18 African countries. South African mobile network operator MTN is Africa’s largest mobile operator, while Chinese company Huawei sells the continent’s most popular handsets. Continue reading »