Africa: When will the West ever learn?

A global aid meeting in South Korea this week has highlighted China's role as an emerging donor, but some Western media outlets are using the meeting to criticize China-Africa relations again, saying China "has developed close ties" with African countries to seek natural resources in exchange of aid.

China-bashing is neither new nor rare. In recent years, the strengthening of relations between China and African countries has become an important geopolitical issue. In June, for instance, Clinton accused China of "colonizing Africa" after attending the US' own trade and economic strategy with Africa, called the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) in Lusaka, Zambia.

Clinton's sentiments reflect a measure of the US' frustration after being outpaced by China in Africa on nearly all fronts. For instance, between 2000 and 2010, the trade volume between China and Africa grew more than 1,000 percent, making China not only to overtake both the European Union and the US , but also to become the most important trading partner of Africa.

Statistics from other areas of Sino-African cooperation such as education, science and technology, agriculture, politics, culture and investment are equally impressive.

The significance of Clinton's sentiments must be seen in the context of the failure of AGOA, the centerpiece of US external trade policy with and in Africa, to achieve its goal. In contrast, the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the official vehicle for Sino-Africa relations, has been very successful. Incidentally, FOCAC and AGOA both were initiated in 2000 and, ideally, they should have produced similar results.

The US is not alone in targeting China. Many leaders of EU member countries, too, have expressed concern at the progress of Sino-African ties.

With virtually all African countries embracing a "look-East policy", the West has been forced to revisit the drawing board to try and salvage its waning traditional ties with Africa. Just a few days ago, the US Senate Foreign Relations African Affairs Subcommittee started hearings on "China in Africa: Implications for US Policy". This indicates the US is about to change its engagement strategy in Africa by taking steps to thwart China's influence.

In a similar but subtler approach, the EU has sought to engage China in the so-called trilateral cooperation in the economic and development needs of Africa. But some analysts posit that by calling for joint engagement in Africa's development, the EU may be more intent on taming China's growing influence in Africa rather than for altruistic purposes.

No matter what policy formulations emerge as the US and the EU rethink and re-engineer their African strategy, one thing is for sure: China's powerful entry into Africa has changed the equation and thrust Africa on to the center stage of global geopolitics.

China has a head start over the West in more ways than one. When China sought closer collaboration with Africa, it did so by convening a Sino-African summit in 2000, which was attended by China's top leadership and Africa's heads of state. Since then, three more such meetings have been held, the last in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009. In contrast, Western strategies on Africa hinge on bilateral considerations with an inherent divide-and-rule policy under which some countries are favored while others are condemned.

Second, China has operated under a lucid policy promulgated in 2006, at the heart of which is the principle of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of African countries. On the other hand, the EU and the US have tied good governance, human rights and transparency demands to all their engagements with and in African countries.

While it may be true that governance issues are a challenge, these conditions have often been viewed as meddling in the affairs of African countries, and China has provided a welcome alternative. Indeed for some African countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan, China is the only option for external support after being blacklisted by the West.

Third, while Western countries have focused on governance and human rights in Africa, China has had a major impact on the infrastructure sector. Today, roads, bridges and buildings are springing up across Africa from east to west, and north to south thanks to long-term loans, some of which require little or no interest for as many as two decades. For many Africans, infrastructure projects are important in opening up a poorly networked continent thus boosting trade among African countries.

Western countries assume that African natural resources are their preserve because of their historical ties with the continent. But many African countries think that Western countries are responsible for the mess in which Africa finds itself today. Cases of complicity or active involvement of the West in resources-related conflicts are evident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia and other countries.

In any case, can't Africa choose which country to do business with? And, can't the US and the EU devise their own policies to engage with Africa without targeting China?

The writer is a Kenyan journalist studying international communication at the Communication University of China.

(China Daily 12/01/2011 page9)