China's new 'win-win' strategy in
Africa By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - It was only a few months ago
that Chinese leaders wined and dined top officials
from 48 of Africa's 53 nations in Beijing, but
it's already time for another grand gesture toward
the resource-rich continent.
Carrying the
national checkbook and a checklist of energy
needs, President Hu Jintao set off this week for
his third tour of Africa in the past four years.
He will visit eight nations in 12 days, dishing
out billions of dollars in loans and aid, while at
the same time
enhancing business ties and
expanding China's access to oil and raw materials.
Trade between China and Africa, the focus
of a historic two-day Beijing summit last
November, has jumped more than fivefold since
2001, reaching US$55.5 billion last year. Premier
Wen Jiabao has said he hopes Sino-African trade
will rise to $100 billion by 2010.
In
addition, Beijing is offering $10 billion in aid
to African countries over the next three years and
dispatching volunteers to provide medicine and
build hospitals and schools. The deepening
relationship has been characterized as "win-win"
on both sides.
In Cameroon, the first stop
on Hu's tour, the president went through the paces
of what has become his African routine: he met
with his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya,
before visiting a hospital funded by the Chinese
government and a sports ground built by a Chinese
company. There followed a gala dinner at which
flattering toasts were exchanged and the
announcement that agreements had been signed to
boost bilateral trade, which totaled $338 million
last year, double the year before.
This
was the first visit by a Chinese head of state to
Cameroon, a West African nation of 16 million
people, and Hu did not spoil it by bringing up the
unpleasant realities of widespread human-rights
abuses and endemic corruption that are hallmarks
of many African governments. It was the usual
no-strings-attached Chinese diplomacy that African
leaders have come to love. In exchange for helping
China meet its voracious energy needs, they get
lucrative business contracts, preferential loans,
export credits and a much-appreciated pledge of
non-interference in their internal affairs.
Since China has its own problems with
corruption and human-rights violations at home,
this strictly trade-for-aid deal has suited both
parties very well. As China's economic power and
influence continue to rise, however, its leaders
face mounting pressure to play a more responsible
role in international affairs. And Hu's latest
African safari may serve as a crucible on this
score.
No one is expecting the president
to engage in Western-style criticism of African
governments, but analysts are looking for subtle
changes in posture. And the testing ground is not
really Wednesday's sojourn in Cameroon or six of
the other seven states he is to visit: Liberia,
Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and
Seychelles.
But Hu faces a substantial
diplomatic challenge when he lands in the Sudanese
capital Khartoum on Friday. United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants the president
to use his rising influence to help bring peace to
Sudan's western Darfur region. More than half of
Sudan's oil exports go to China, and Beijing is
the country's leading arms supplier.
The
United Nations says more than 200,000 people have
been killed and another 2.5 million displaced
during the four-year conflict between local rebels
and government-sanctioned militia in Darfur. As a
permanent member of the UN Security Council, China
has thus far opposed efforts to force the
government of President Omar al-Bashir to accept a
UN peacekeeping force.
Bashir has denied
backing an Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed,
against the black tribesmen of the region and
rejected the proposed UN force as an attempt to
recolonize his country. Bashir has agreed to the
presence of 7,000 peacekeepers from the African
Union (AU), to which he aspires to be elected
chairman this week, but the violence and refugee
crisis reportedly continue.
Against this
background, Hu will arrive in Sudan, where his
country's oil interests, already substantial,
continue to grow. Sudan currently accounts for
about 5% of China's oil, and China National
Petroleum Corp owns 40% of the Greater Nile
Petroleum Operating Co. In addition, Sinopec
(China Petroleum and Chemical Corp) is
constructing a 1,500-kilometer pipeline to Port
Sudan on the Red Sea, where the China Petroleum
Engineering and Construction Group is building a
tanker terminal.
The UN secretary general
and other international leaders would like to see
Hu parlay China's substantial economic presence in
Sudan into diplomatic influence to nudge Bashir
toward accepting a UN force to supplement the
struggling AU troops.
Predictably, rights
groups are also chiming in. New York-based Human
Rights Watch called on China "to fulfill its
international obligations and be seen as a
responsible power", adding: "Undertaking these
steps will help demonstrate that China's interest
in Sudan is not merely about ensuring its access
to oil supplies but also about the welfare of the
Sudanese people so devastated by the ongoing
conflict."
This time around in Africa, Hu
appears to be responding to the pressure.
Assistant foreign minister Zhai Jun raised
expectations this week when he said: "I believe
this visit will not only boost bilateral ties, but
also peace and stability in the region."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang
Yu has also been quoted this week as saying that
the Darfur impasse "can be properly solved through
political negotiations".
Does this signal
a shift in China's policy of non-interference?
Don't expect China to threaten sanctions
or engage in any other act of high-profile
diplomatic pressure. There is too much at stake
economically in Africa and, besides, the hypocrisy
of China taking up the mantle of human-rights
champion in Darfur or anywhere else would be
self-defeating.
All signs point, however,
to a private Hu-Bashir dialogue during which the
Chinese leader will encourage his host to work
toward a settlement of the Darfur crisis. If this
soft brand of Chinese diplomacy proves effective,
Hu will have achieved more than another economic
victory this time in Africa. This would truly be a
"win-win" scenario for the president.
Kent Ewing is a teacher and
writer at Hong Kong International School. He can
be reached at kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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