This past weekend, the foreign ministers of China and Africa met for the fourth summit of the Forum on China Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) in Sharm-El Sheikh, Egypt. The Chinese government announced that it would double aid flows to Africa in the next three years. Many Western observers criticize that China is only interested in exploiting Africa’s resources, at the cost of the environment and human rights. So what about China’s role in Africa? Here is some food for thought.
1. Africa’s rapidly growing exports to China are indeed dominated by oil and minerals. This mirrors African exports to the West. According to the IMF, China took up 25% of Africa’s oil exports and 16% of the continent’s other raw material exports in 2005. (Other sources give lower figures.) The bulk of African oil still goes to the US, and of other raw materials, to Europe.
2. While the US oil imports are mainly used for private transport, most of the Chinese imports are used by industry. China has become the world’s factory. A lot of the raw materials which China exploits in Africa end up in the furniture and television sets in our living rooms.
3. China has often propped up undemocratic regimes. It sold arms to Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe squashed the opposition in last year’s election. And it protected the Sudanese government from UN sanctions until it started to put pressure on it in 2007. While this is scandalous, Western policy in Africa is again not very different. The West still props up unsavory regimes in oil-rich African countries (let alone the Middle East). And it financed the governments of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda while they sponsored militias in a war in Eastern Congo that claimed hundred thousands of lives.
4. As late-comers to the international markets, Chinese companies often invest in regions which have been shunned by Western companies because they are remote or politically unstable. This creates political and environmental risks. Instead of pushing the boundaries of oil and mineral exploration China companies could of course buy raw materials on the world market. This would push up gas and other prices (which from an environmental perspective would not be a bad thing).
5. Even though Chinese companies invest in environmentally sensitive sectors and regions, they have so far not followed strict social and environmental standards. Chinese government agencies and financiers have in recent years begun to bridge this gap. Yet on the ground, not much has changed. A Chinese hydropower company recently expressed interest in developing the massive Gibe 4 Dam in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, which would impoverish hundreds of thousands of people along the Omo River and around Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Again, Western-dominated actors are doing the same. The World Bank is currently considering support for the nearby Gibe 3 Dam, which would have similar impacts.
6. As is the case for the West, China’s relations with Africa cannot be reduced to mineral exploitation. Chinese companies and government agencies have built roads, railway lines, health centers and schools in Africa for five decades. Being a poor developing country, China offers experiences and products – such as its cheap but effective malaria drugs – which can be more relevant for Africa than Western luxury goods. At the recent FOCAC summit, China – the world leader in renewable energy – offered to build 100 renewable energy projects in Africa, which is a good thing.
7. There is a lot of concern about Chinese (and Middle Eastern) land grabs in Africa. I don’t know this sector, and think we need to look more closely: If China helps to kick out small farmers from their lands to develop them for export production, it will increase poverty and hunger. If it provides technical assistance to increase the productivity of African farmers to the level of China’s agriculture, it will help fight hunger in Africa.
8. Western governments have made a lot of positive noise about democracy, human rights and poverty reduction in Africa. Their actions have often not lived up to their rhetoric, and they have failed to deliver the aid which they promised as their part of the deal. In contrast, the Chinese government has followed up on the generous aid promises which it made at the last FOCAC summit three years ago, and has just offered another $10 billion in support. It appears more credible in the eyes of many African observers.
9. Chinese companies and government agencies should start listening to civil society in Africa. The FOCAC process has been opened to the business sector, but not to civil society. Involving African non-governmental organizations will bring the issues of community rights, corruption and the environment onto the FOCAC agenda.
10. While China has a policy on Africa, African governments don’t have a coordinated policy on China. They will lose out if they continue to deal with China bilaterally, at FOCAC and through other avenues.
In short, a lot of concerns about the impacts of Chinese investments in Africa are justified. But we should be aware that China’s policies on the environment, corruption and human rights in in its overseas investments are slowly changing. And while we point out the numerous splinters in China’s eye, we should not forget to remove the beam in our own.