China in Africa
The following article is based on a speech delivered by a
representative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain
(Marxist-Leninist) at a meeting, ‘Evolving China and Africa Relations – an
alternative to Western domination?’, organised by A Just African Movement for
Unity (AJAMU), in north London on Saturday 19 February 2011.
________________________________
Although the imperialist powers, but less often the
imperialist media, sometimes have to say for diplomatic reasons that they
welcome cooperation between China and Africa, that is very far from their real
position. We could, of course, guess their real view – but thanks to Wikileaks,
we don’t have to guess.
A cable in February last year from a senior US official in the Nigerian capital Lagos described China’s role in Africa as “aggressive and
pernicious”. The US official added:
“The United States will continue to push
democracy and capitalism while [the] Chinese… are with the Mugabe’s and
Bashir’s of the world, which is a contrarian political model.”
Frankly, if the West opposes something, there is
usually something to recommend it.
In the West, we are constantly being told,
essentially by the very people who themselves colonised Africa, stole its land,
sucked it dry of whatever resources it could lay its hands on, ran the
genocidal Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and carved up its territories like slices
of wedding cake at the Berlin Conference at the close of the nineteenth
century, that China is the new coloniser of Africa. And that China has only just become interested in Africa now that its rise and its booming economy are
leading to its seeking to purchase huge quantities of African minerals and
commodities.
It is indeed true that China’s need for many of the
resources that Africa possesses in such abundance has given a remarkable boost
to Sino-African economic cooperation, but it is quite untrue to state that
China/Africa relations only began yesterday.
What is true is that, unlike those in the West who
are today so free with their criticisms of China’s relations with Africa, China has never come to Africa as a coloniser and has never enslaved African people. Indeed, Chinese
people were brought to Africa as slaves, by British imperialism, to work the
gold mines of South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century.
Back in the fifteenth century, Zheng He, a famous
Chinese Muslim Admiral, sailed with his fleet as far as East Africa. They
traded their goods and went away.
The modern relations between China and Africa begin and are defined by the liberation struggles of the two peoples against
colonialism and imperialism. And in this context I want to note that most of
the prominent leaders of the African liberation struggle have also been
supporters of the Chinese revolution, a revolution they have also seen as
having direct significance for their own struggle.
In the 1930s, Langston Hughes, the great poet of
the Harlem Renaissance, wrote poetry lauding the heroic resistance of the
Chinese people against invasion by Japan.
A little later, Paul Robeson learned and sang in
Chinese the words that were to become the national anthem after the People’s
Republic was founded, to express his solidarity with the Chinese people in
their revolutionary war.
The great scholar, Dr WEB Du Bois broke the US blockade to celebrate his 91st birthday in China, with a remarkably prophetic broadcast on Radio
Peking, where he said:
“Speak, China, and tell your truth to Africa and the world. What people have been despised as you have? Who more than you have
been rejected of men? Recall when lordly Britishers threw the rickshaw money on
the ground to avoid touching a filthy hand. Forget not the time when in Shanghai no Chinese man dare set foot in a park which he paid for. Tell this to Africa,
for today Africa stands on new feet, with new eyesight, with new brains and
asks: Where am I and why? …..
“China is flesh of your flesh, and blood of your
blood. China is coloured and knows to what a coloured skin in this modern world
subjects its owner. But China knows more, much more than this: she knows what
to do about it. She can take the insults of the United States and still hold
her head high. She can make her own machines, when America refuses to sell her
American manufactures, even though it hurts American industry, and throws her
workers out of jobs. China does not need American nor British missionaries to
teach her religion and scare her with tales of hell. China has been in hell too
long, not to believe in a heaven of her own making. This she is doing.”
Robert F Williams, the first prominent
African-American leader to advocate armed self-defence, was given refuge in
Mao’s China, together with his family, and from his writings and speeches
there, and in his travels in Africa, did much to enlighten African
revolutionaries as to events in China and the significance of Mao’s teachings,
especially on people’s war, for the oppressed people of the world.
Malcolm X referred to the significance of the
Chinese revolution again and again. Here is one typical example of what Malcolm
had to say:
“There was a time in this country when they used
to use the expression about Chinese, ‘He doesn’t have a Chinaman’s chance’.
“Remember when they used to say that about the
Chinese? You don’t hear them saying that nowadays. Because the Chinaman has
more chance now than they do….
“It was not until China became independent and
strong that Chinese people all over the world became respected…. Once China became independent and strong and feared, then wherever you saw a Chinaman, he was
independent, he was strong, he was feared and he was respected. It’s the same
way with you and me…. You and I have to get our people behind us, our people
in our own motherland and fatherland. Just as a strong China has produced a respected Chinaman, a strong Africa will produce a respected Black man anywhere
that Black man goes on this earth. It’s only with a strong Africa, an
independent Africa and a respected Africa that wherever those of African origin
or African heritage or African likeness go, they will be respected.”
The Black Panther Party were also staunch
supporters of socialist China and of Mao’s teachings and did everything they
could to popularise them in their communities. The Chinese insisted on hosting
a delegation from the Panthers, led by Huey P Newton before Nixon’s visit.
All these revolutionaries were inspired by the
struggles of the Chinese people. But the support they gave to China was also invaluable, at times when the Chinese people were fighting for their
liberation and when they were isolated, blockaded and embargoed by the most
powerful imperialist power on earth and other big powers.
I will say more a little later about China’s support to Africa, but I want to stress that the relationship has always been one of mutual
support and Africa’s support to China has been invaluable.
During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when
many countries shunned China, President Nyerere of Tanzania and President
Kaunda of Zambia were among the very few heads of state to visit.
At the start of the 1970s, the People’s Republic
finally won the right to take its lawful seat in the United Nations, and on the
Security Council. It was the votes of the African countries that were crucial
in securing that victory for China.
Whenever China has been under attack from hostile
western forces, the overwhelming majority of African countries have always
sided with China and shown their support for its vital interests.
China was liberated in 1949 – a time when the
overwhelming majority of African countries were still to win their political
independence. At the time of liberation, China was a desperately poor country,
needing to overcome more than a century of humiliation and decades of war, yet
to recover all of its national territory, its industry and agriculture in
ruins, and the majority of its people illiterate, hungry and disease-ridden.
Moreover, just a year after its founding, the People’s Republic was forced into
a vicious war in Korea against the might of the United States and 15 of its
allied and satellite countries.
Yet this mountain of problems did not stop China from expressing its support for the national liberation struggles in Africa.
In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom,
Nelson Mandela recalls that in 1953 he sent Walter Sisulu to China to secure China’s support for the anti-apartheid struggle.
In 1955, contacts were made between the Chinese
leaders and many leaders of the African liberation struggle at the Afro-Asian
Conference in Bandung, Indonesia.
China recognised the provisional government of Algeria on the very day of its founding, the first country to do so, and long before the
French were driven out.
When Patrice Lumumba was murdered in Congo, Mao made a personal statement in solidarity with the Congolese people. Millions of
people demonstrated in China and China supported the armed liberation struggle
in the Congo led by figures such as Pierre Mulele and Laurent Kabila.
On August 18 this year, celebrations will be held
to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Friendship Treaty between
China and Ghana, signed by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Chinese President Liu
Shaoqi in front of tens of thousands of people in the Workers’ Stadium in
Beijing.
Between 1970-75, when China was still a very poor
country and going through difficult days, she built the Tan Zam railway, which
the west had refused to build. Zambia and Tanzania were being crippled
economically by their support to the anti-apartheid, anti-imperialist struggle.
Landlocked Zambia could only export its copper through what was then Rhodesia and South Africa. The Tan Zam railway gave Zambia another outlet to the sea. The west said
the railway was logistically impractical and too expensive to build. A still
impoverished China proved them wrong.
The greatest contribution to the liberation of Mozambique and Zimbabwe by any non-African country came from China and fighters of nearly every
African liberation movement were trained in China in the 60s and 70s. Some of
them are today leaders of their countries, such as the current President of
Eritrea.
Today, the focus of the relationship between China and Africa has changed somewhat, as economic relations increasingly come to the fore. But it
is important to appreciate that they do so against this background, not least
because it is so often overlooked or denied here in the West.
And of course, economics and politics cannot be
separated. On December 23 last year, the Chinese government published its first
ever White Paper on China/Africa economic and trade cooperation. This
authoritative statement of the Chinese government begins by stating:
“China is the largest developing country in the
world, and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries. The
combined population of China and Africa accounts for over one-third of the
world’s total. Promoting economic development and social progress is the common
task China and Africa are facing.”
And it continues: “China-Africa economic and
trade cooperation is a major component of South-South cooperation, infuses new
life into the latter, and elevates the political and economic status of
developing countries in the world, playing a significant role in promoting the
establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic
order.”
For many years, the first overseas visit made by a
Chinese foreign minister every year has been to a number of African countries.
This tradition began as a way of expressing appreciation to the African
countries for their political support to China at a time when the west was
attempting to cause internal political strife and to punish it with sanctions.
But this year, China has begun 2011 with four separate high level political
visits to the African continent.
Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has visited Mauritius, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Senegal.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has visited Zimbabwe, Gabon, Chad, Guinea and Togo.
Vice Chairman Li Zhaozhuo of the Chinese People’s
Political Consultative Conference has visited Ghana, Rwanda and Mozambique.
And Minister of Commerce Chen Deming has visited Morocco, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana.
And all this is just in the first six weeks of the
year. No other big power treats Africa with this degree of respect. It’s also
worth noting that these visits cover every part of Africa, cover big and small
countries, and, whilst cooperation in mining and minerals certainly features,
the visits are not confined to those countries with such an obvious and
strategic interest and importance for China.
I want now to use some of the material from the
White Paper I just mentioned to highlight some aspects of the growth and
development of the current relationship.
According to the paper: “With the development of
China-Africa relations and increased exchanges between China and African countries, the scale of China-Africa trade has increasingly expanded.
China-Africa bilateral trade volume was only US$12.14 million in 1950, it rose
to US$100 million in 1960, and exceeded US$1 billion in 1980. After reaching
the US$10 billion mark in 2000, China-Africa trade has maintained a momentum of
rapid growth ever since. In 2008, China-Africa bilateral trade volume exceeded
US$100 billion, of which US$50.8 billion is China’s exports to Africa and US$56
billion is imports from Africa. [In other words, the African countries have
a modest balance in their favour in their trade with China. – Ed.] The
average annual growth rate of China-Africa trade between 2000 and 2008 reached
33.5%, with its proportion in China’s total foreign trade volume rising from
2.2% to 4.2%, and its proportion in Africa’s total foreign trade volume
increasing from 3.8% to 10.4%. Although China-Africa trade volume dropped to
US$91.07 billion in 2009 as a result of the international financial crisis, China became Africa’s largest trade partner that year for the first time. As the global economy
recovered, China-Africa trade also maintained a favourable recovery and
development momentum. From January to November in 2010, China-Africa trade
volume reached US$114.81 billion, a year-on-year growth of 43.5%.”
To assist Africa in its exports to China, she has
offered the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Africa that have diplomatic
relations with China zero tariffs on some of their exports to China since 2005.
By July 2010, African products that enjoy zero-tariff treatment had increased
to 4,700 taxable items.
China attaches importance to giving support to
African countries to improve their infrastructure, helping them build houses,
roads, bridges, railways, airports, ports, telecommunications, power networks,
water supply, sewage and drainage systems, low-cost housing and hospitals.
Chinese enterprises undertake social
responsibilities on their own initiative, and actively participate in programmes
benefiting local people. They have provided funds to build roads, bridges,
hospitals and schools, and to sink wells. They have also donated materials to
make a positive contribution to the development of local communities. For
example, the friendship schools China aids in Nigeria promote elementary
education in 300 villages, and vocational training centres in Angola and Libya turn out large numbers of skilled workers.
By the end of 2009, 107 schools had been built in
Africa with Chinese assistance, and 29,465 African students had received
Chinese government scholarships to study in China. At present, the Chinese
government offers about 5,000 scholarships to students from African countries
each year. It has also intensified its cooperation with African countries in
fields such as higher education, vocational education and long-distance
education, building specialised laboratories for biology, computer science,
analytical chemistry, food preservation and processing, horticulture and civil
engineering.
According to the White Paper: “China always regards helping Africa solve its food security problem as its ultimate goal
in China-Africa agricultural cooperation. The major fields of China-Africa
agricultural cooperation cover infrastructure construction, food production,
breeding industry, exchange and transfer of agricultural practical techniques,
and processing, storage and transport of agricultural products. By the end of
2009, China had helped to build over 142 agricultural projects in Africa such as pilot agro-technical stations, stations for popularising agricultural
techniques and farms. China has launched 14 agricultural technology
demonstration centres in Africa, and provided a large amount of agricultural
materials and equipment. The Chinese government also encourages its enterprises
to invest in agricultural product processing and agricultural development
projects in Africa.”
In terms of improving medical and health conditions
in Africa, the major measures taken by China include offering assistance to
build hospitals, sending medical teams to Africa, and providing medicines and
medical supplies. By the end of 2009, China had helped to build 54 hospitals,
set up 30 malaria prevention and treatment centres, and provided anti-malaria
drugs worth 200 million yuan to 35 African countries. Since 1963, China has sent medical teams to 46 African countries with a total number of 18,000 medical
workers, treating as many as 200 million patients and training tens of
thousands of African medical staff over the decades. They have not only cured
common and prevalent diseases but also created the conditions to perform
challenging operations like treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
diseases, re-attachment of severed limbs and removal of large tumours, saving
the lives of many patients. At present, over 1,000 Chinese medical workers are
providing medical services in 41 African countries.
Besides this, on February 11 this year, eight
Chinese academic research institutes formed an alliance to boost medical cooperation
with African countries. According to one of the founders, more efforts were
needed to help African countries improve their heath care systems, instead of
just sending medical teams, so Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu has pledged not
only to send another 3,000 medical workers and 100 different types of medicines
to less-developed countries but also to help them train 5,000 doctors in five
years.
China is active in debt cancellation to Africa. From 2000 to 2009, China cancelled 312 debts of 35 African countries, totalling
18.96 billion yuan.
On climate change, the Chinese government has
promised not to contend for the financial assistance, pledged to developing
countries, with African countries, but instead will offer them practical
assistance in funds, technology and capacity building. At present, China has formed cooperation plans in the fields of biogas technology, hydropower, solar
power and wind power with some African countries.
At a 2006 summit between China and the African
countries, China gave eight commitments, as follows:
1. Increase
assistance to African countries, and by 2009 double the size of its assistance
to African countries in 2006.
2. Provide
US$3 billion in preferential loans and US$2 billion in preferential export
buyer’s credits to African countries in the next three years.
3. Set
up the China-Africa Development Fund, the total amount of which will gradually
reach US$5 billion, to give encouragement and support to Chinese companies
investing in projects in Africa.
4. Help
the African Union to build a convention centre in order to support African
countries in their efforts to strengthen themselves through unity and speed up
African integration.
5. Cancel
the repayment of interest-free government loans that had become due by the end
of 2005 to China by Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) and Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) in Africa that have diplomatic ties with China.
6. Further
open the Chinese market to Africa, and increase from 190 to over 440 the number
of African export items to China eligible for zero-tariff treatment from the
LDCs in Africa having diplomatic relations with China.
7.
Set up three to five overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in
African countries in the next three years.
8.
Train 15,000 professionals for African countries in the next three years; send
100 senior experts in agricultural technology to Africa; set up in Africa 10
demonstration centres of agricultural technology; assist African countries in
building 30 hospitals and provide a grant of 300 million yuan to African
countries to be used to buy anti-malaria drugs like artemisinin and build 30
centres for prevention and treatment of malaria; dispatch 300 young volunteers
to African countries; help African countries set up 100 rural schools; increase
the number of Chinese government scholarships for African students from the
current 2,000 per year to 4,000 per year by the end of 2008.
All these commitments had been met in full by 2009.
One need hardly bother to note the stark contrast with the worthless pledges
made by the imperialists at their G7 and G8 summits, for example that at
Gleneagles, where the preposterous ‘coalition of the willing’ of Blair, Bob
Geldof and Bono, sought to present themselves as the trinity that would save
Africa.
Accordingly, with the fulfilment of these pledges,
in 2009, at a ministerial conference between China and Africa, China unveiled another eight commitments, covering agriculture, environmental protection,
investment promotion, debt reduction and cancellation, wider market access,
education, and medical care and public health. According to the Chinese
government:
“These eight commitments, focusing on improving
the living standards of the African people, enhancing cooperation in
agriculture and human resource development and raising Africa’s self-reliance
capacity, aim to help African countries solve their current practical problems, realise sustainable growth, and further consolidate the foundation for economic and
social development.”
These eight commitments are as follows:
1.
China proposed the establishment of a China-Africa partnership in
addressing climate change and the holding of senior official consultations on a
non-regular basis to strengthen cooperation in satellite weather monitoring,
development and use of new energy, prevention and control of desertification,
and urban environmental protection. The Chinese government has decided to
assist African countries with 100 clean energy projects in the fields of solar
energy, biogas and small hydropower stations.
2.
To intensify cooperation in science and technology, China proposed to launch
the China-Africa Science and Technology Partnership Plan, carry out 100 joint
research and demonstration projects, invite 100 African post-doctoral students
to conduct scientific research in China and subsidise them when they return to
their home countries to work.
3.
In order to raise African countries’ capacity in financing, the Chinese
government will provide US$10 billion in preferential loans to African
countries. China supports the establishment by Chinese financial institutions
of a special loan of US$1 billion for the development of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. The Chinese government will cancel debts of
interest-free government loans that will mature by the end of 2009 owed by all
HIPCs and the LDCs in Africa having diplomatic relations with China.
4.
China will further open its market to African countries. It will gradually
give zero-tariff treatment to 95% of exports from the LDCs in Africa having
diplomatic relations with China. As the first step, China granted zero-tariff
treatment to 60% of the exported commodities from those countries in 2010.
5.
In order to further strengthen agricultural cooperation and improve African
countries’ capacity for food security, China will increase to 20 the total
number of agricultural technology demonstration centres built for African
countries, send 50 agricultural technology teams to Africa and help train 2,000
agricultural technicians from African countries.
6.
China will continue to deepen China-Africa cooperation in medical care and
public health service. It will provide 500 million yuan worth of medical
equipment and malaria-fighting materials to 30 hospitals and 30 malaria
prevention and treatment centres which have been built with China’s assistance, and help African countries train a total of 3,000 doctors and nurses.
7.
In order to further enhance cooperation in human resource development and
education, the Chinese government will help African countries to build 50
China-Africa friendship schools and train 1,500 school headmasters and
teachers; increase the number of Chinese government scholarships for African
students to 5,500 by 2012; and train a total of 20,000 professionals in various
sectors for African countries in the next three years.
8.
To enlarge people-to-people exchanges, China proposed to implement a
China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan to strengthen cooperation and
exchanges between scholars and think tanks, which will also provide intellectual
support for better policy-making regarding cooperation between the two sides.
Whilst China’s policy statements and intentions are
clear and laudable, there are, of course, at times, mistakes and shortcomings
in its policies and practices towards Africa.
China is far from a perfect society. It is itself
still a developing country with many people still living in poverty and the
country faces many challenges, including poverty reduction, pollution,
sustainability, external threats, repeated natural disasters, and so on.
Also, since the late 1970s, with a view to
facilitating and speeding up China’s development, the country’s leaders have
introduced a series of market reforms, which, among other things, have widened
inequality in China and led to a revived private sector gradually taking a
major, but not dominant, role in the economy.
Many of these private enterprises are well-run and
responsible and are playing an important role in China’s economic development
and the development of other countries where they may be operating. But some
others are not. For example, by far the biggest number of mining fatalities in
any country occur in China, with most of the deaths occurring in small,
privately-run and often illegal mines. And the Chinese press itself often
reports on abuses of working people in the private sector.
Most of China’s state-owned enterprises operating
abroad, in which the Communist Party exercises direct leadership, are careful
to respect and observe local laws and customs and carry out the Chinese
government’s policies of bringing tangible benefits to local people and
communities. But some private companies, just as they behave at home in China, do not, and they are responsible for most of the negative incidents that occur from
time to time.
If China values its good name in Africa, and I
believe it does, it will take measures to correct and punish these companies
and prevent them from going abroad.
However, it would be quite wrong to leap from any
individual problems to accusations that China is in Africa as the new
coloniser. China does not send its armies to Africa. It has no military bases
there and hasn’t asked for any. It does not foment coups or meddle in internal
politics. The African countries today are sovereign states and if China has an economic interest in Africa, which it clearly does, then the African governments have
the responsibility to drive a good bargain.
Indeed, in many instances, this is already
happening. Dr Moses Kavanga, executive director of the East Africa Institute of
Political Studies in Nairobi, Kenya, said recently, “the important outcome
of the growing China-Africa relations is the construction and reconstruction of
infrastructure, especially roads, water works and hospitals happening at a much
faster pace than when Africa exclusively relied on the west as its strategic
global partner”.
Tom Cargill, assistant head of the African
Programme at the London-based think tank Chatham House said recently that the
notion that Africa may not be getting enough benefits from its relations with China is misplaced.
“Our report on China-Angola shows that on the
contrary, some African countries are making maximum gains from relations with China,” he said in a press interview.
“If you have a government that knows how to make
deals, it can get lots of gains from relations with China.”
He went on to note that China has provided funding
for strategic post-conflict infrastructure projects in Angola that Western
donors declined to fund.
The shift toward China occurred partly because non-Chinese
credit lines, that Angola secured in 2004, demanded higher guarantees of oil,
according to a working paper published by Chatham House.
It said China’s investments in the rehabilitation
of hydroelectric dams, construction of roads, hospitals and residential houses
have helped to ease poverty levels in the formerly war-ravaged African country.
East African Community Secretary General Juma
Mwapachu said recently that China and India are providing new markets to Africa
and this is reflected in Africa selling less and less to previous key trading
blocs like the European Union.
He said the EU and the United States have, for
example, persistently dragged their feet when it comes to investing in
infrastructure in Africa, by attaching numerous conditions, a trend that has
been promoted and rubber-stamped by the World Bank.
This meant that, when Africa leaned towards the EU
and the United States, investments in infrastructure, the key catalyst of
economic growth, were sluggish, and this affected the pace of development.
“But now China has come. It is building the
infrastructure and there is a win-win situation between the two entities.”
In conclusion, relations between China and Africa may today appear more pragmatic and less ideological than in the past. But if
anything, they are more real and more tangible – they are actually changing the
economic and political face of the world.
Although these relations are not
without problems, if China and Africa can continue to work together in a
cooperative way, respecting each other’s interests and needs, then both peoples
will benefit, and imperialism, the common enemy, will be weakened, by having
less scope to meddle and to exert economic or other pressures on the developing
countries.