China-Africa Relations:
Past, Present and Future
Dr. HE Wenping
Professor, Director of African Studies Section
Institute of West Asian & African Studies,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
1. Historical Heritage and Three
Development Periods
2. Current Economic Cooperation
3. FOCAC and Its Impact
4. Opportunities, Trends and Challenges
Ahead
1. China-African relations: Historical Heritage
and Three Development Periods
—— Long history: can trace back to Han Dynasty 2 BC,
then Tang Dynasty. Wan Dayuan(汪大渊) in Yuan
Dynasty travelled to 12 countries in North and East
Africa; and Ibn Battuta (伊本·白图泰)(1304－1377）from
Morocco also travelled to China for two years.
—— Zheng He （1371-1435）: Great navigator in Ming
Dynasty. Led a fleet of ships (the most advanced one at
that time) and visited more than 30 countries in South
East Asia and the countries along Indian Ocean for 7 times
since 1405. He visited East Africa (eg. Kenya and
Tanzania) 4 times as well.
——Peace and good will visit (no slave taken, no land
occupied)
• Ming Dynasty
• Great Navigator
Zheng He（1371-1435）
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
First period (from the 1950s to the end of the
1970s): rich ideology and reinforcement
of political benefits
Background:
— Diplomatic isolation
— “Three worlds divided” theory
Manifestation:
—China support the African countries’ just
struggle for national independence and against
imperialism and colonialism
— China has actively helped the African
countries develop their economies and
consolidate independence (such as TaZara
Railway)
— African countries supported China’s
reunification cause and resumption of China’s
legitimate seat at the United Nations
Chairman Mao with
Friends from Asia,
Latin America and
Africa in 1959
The biggest Chinese aid project to Africa, the Tan-Zam Railway,
began to be built in mid 1960’s and completed in 1975
Second period (whole decade of 1980s):
weakening ideology and valuing
economic benefits
• Background:
–the changes of China’s domestic
situation: focus on modernization and
economic development
–the changes of China’s diplomatic
strategy: from ideological idealism to
pragmatic realism, from the
unconditional internationalism to the
priority of the national interest
• Manifestation:
• — Sino-African economic and
trade relations have developed
from the singular pattern of
official aid between governments
in the past into a mutually
beneficial cooperation of
diversified forms.
Third period (after the end of the cold war up to
now): attaching importance to both political
and economic benefits and developing
bilateral relations in an all-round way
– Politically, China has always regarded Africa
as its most reliable ally in the international
stage. (voting power and strategic support for
China’s peaceful rising. frequent high level
visits, former President Hu had visited Africa 6
times, President Xi just visited Africa in March)
– Economically, to develop Sino-African
relations is the requirement for China’s
economy to carry out sustainable
development. (resources, market, investment)
2. Current Economic Cooperation
• Trade: improved rapidly. China is now the
biggest trade partner of Africa, surpass US since
2009
— trade volume has been increased from
$10billion in 2000 up to $126.9 billion (2010),
$160 billion (2011) , over $ 200 billion (2012),
30-35% annual growth rate in 10 years.
— strong complementary with each other:
Chinese manufacture products meet African
demand and Africa’s resources meet China’s
huge demand for economic sustainable growth
— trade partners are quite concentrated among
a few countries: SA, Angola, Sudan, Egypt,
Nigeria, Algeria, Congo(B)
China’s trade with Africa in total (＄billion)
• New trend: Trade structure has been
gradually changed
— The share of high tech. products is increasing,
account for more than half of China’s export to
Africa now, such as home appliances, mobile
phones, autos, aircrafts, even satellites, etc.
— More African products are also seen in Chinese
market and be fond by Chinese consumers,
such as marble from Egypt, coffee from Cote
d’Ivoire and Uganda, auto parts from South
Africa, electronic products from Tunisia, tobacco
from Zimbabwe, peanut oil from Senegal, cotton
from Mali and cassava from Nigeria.
—However, resources products are still taking the
lead in the trade at the moment. Africa is now
the second largest crude oil resources to China.
• Investment:
— started from 1980, fast developed since 2001;
—Signed mutual investment protect agreements with 28
African countries, and refrain from dual taxes-levy
treaties with 8 African countries
— grow from $50 million 2001 to nearly $1 billion annually
in recent years ($15 bn in total), Africa is now China's
second largest overseas labor and project
contracting market and fourth largest destination for
outward investment.
2000 Chinese enterprises based in Africa
—Investments focus on agriculture, manufacture,
communication, and mainly infrastracture areas such as
irrigation, road/bridge, railway construction, hydropower
station, etc.
—Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia are the
main investment destination countries.
• labour-contracted projects:
— largely developed since 1979, accounting for
$39.44 billion by the end of 2008, 10 times that
of 2000, and accounted for 31% of whole
labour-contrated projects in the whole world.
Africa is becoming the second largest market for
China in this regard (1 to 2 million Chinese
there)
— So far, Chinese companies have contracted in
building more than 6000 km roads, 3400 km
railways, and 8 hydropower stations.
•
3. FOCAC and Its Impact
(FOCAC: Forum of China-Africa Cooperation)
• Background and significance of the Forum
– Proposed by some African countries and echoed by
Chinese government
– The needs of strengthening consultation and
cooperation in the new situation
– A new platform and a mechanism for regular bilateral
exchanges and closer Sino-African cooperation
– The first of its kind in the history of Sino-African
relations and in the 50 years of the People’s Republic
of China’s diplomacy history
• The first Forum: Beijing 2000 Ministerial
Conference
– Two documents issued: the Beijing Declaration and
the Programme of Cooperation on Economic and
Social Development
– RMB 10 billion debts write-off to African countries
within the set period of 2 years; set up special
foundations for encouraging Chinese enterprises to
invest in Africa, and for helping training all kinds of
African professional personnel.
– Mechanism design: once every 3 years, rotation
taking in China and Africa, avoid empty talk, detail
measures in Action Plan based on mutual discussion,
mainly demand-driven
• The second Forum: Addis Ababa 2003
Ministerial Conference
– Addis Ababa Action Plan (2004-2006) had
been passed
– Major concrete measures including:
1) increase the aids to Africa;
2) further open Chinese market to African
products and grant duty-free for some
commodities produced by the least developed
African countries;
3) Increase 33％ input for the African
Human Resources Development Fund and
training nearly 10 thousand African talent
in the next 3 years;
4) Add 8 new African countries in the list of
travel destination for Chinese tourists, etc.
• The Third Forum: Beijing 2006 Summit
Eight measures have been announced:
——Double assistance by 2009
——Provide loans and credits totaling US$ 5 billion
——Set-up a Development Fund which will reach US$
5 billion to encourage Chinese Companies’ investment
——Build a conference centre for the AU (hand over in early 2012)
——Debt Cancel
——Further Open up China’s Market to African commodities (from
previous 190 to 440 items)
——Establish 3-5 Trade & Economic Cooperation Zones（ NigeriaGuang Dong Cooperation Zone（China-Zambia Cooperation
Zone，Raiki Free Trade Zone in Nigeria，Suez Cooperation
Zone in Egypt，Oriental Industrial Park in Ethiopia，
Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Mauritius ）
• ——Train 15,ooo African Professionals, build 100 rural schools,
dispatch 100 agriculture experts and 300 youth volunteers, build 30
hospitals and 30 malaria treatment centres, increase scholarships for
African students from 2000 to 4000 per year,etc
The 2006 FOCAC Summit Opening Ceremony
• The Fourth Forum: 2009 SHARM EL-SHEIKH,
Egypt Ministerial Conference
• New Eight measures have been announced:
——Establish a China-Africa partnership in addressing
climate change, to build 100 clean energy
projects for Africa covering solar power, bio-gas and
small hydro-power .
—— Enhance cooperation with Africa in science and
technology, will carry out 100 joint demonstration
projects with Africa on scientific and technological
research and receive 100 African postdoctoral fellows
to conduct scientific research in China
——Help Africa build up financing capacity. China
would provide 10 billion U.S. dollars in concessional
loans to African countries, and setting up a special
loan of 1 billion dollars for small- and medium-sized
African businesses, cancel African countries’ debts
due to mature by the end of 2009
——Further open up China’s market to African
products. phase in zero-tariff treatment to 95
percent of the products from the least developed
African countries, starting with 60 percent of the
products within 2010.
——Enhance cooperation with Africa in
agriculture. increase the number of agricultural
technology demonstration centers in Africa to 20,
send 50 agricultural technology teams to Africa and
train 2,000 African agricultural technology
personnel.
——Deepen cooperation in medical care and
health. provide medical equipment and anti-malaria
materials worth RMB 500 million ($ 73.2 million) to
the 30 hospitals and 30 malaria prevention and
treatment centers built by China and train 3,000
doctors and nurses for Africa.
——Enhance cooperation in human resources
development and education. China would build
50 schools and train 1,500 school principals and
teachers for African countries. By 2012, China
would increase the number of Chinese
government scholarships to Africa to 5,500, and
would also train 20,000 professionals for Africa
over the next three years.
——Expand people-to-people and cultural
exchanges. China proposes to launch a ChinaAfrica joint research and exchange program to
increase exchanges and cooperation, share
development experience, and provide intellectual
support for formulating better cooperation
policies by the two sides
• The Fifth Forum: 2012 Beijing Ministerial
Conference in July
• Five priority areas announced by then Chinese
President Hu Jintao at the opening meeting
—— the financing ( $20 billion credit loans)
—— development assistance (highly related with
people’s livelihood, human resources training)
—— African’s integration (transnational
infrastructure projects)
—— people to people relations (NGOs
interactions)
—— peace and security (train African peacekeeper, support African stand-by forces, etc.）
• The Impact of FOCAC
—— Bilaterally, an New Impulse for Promoting Sino-African
Relations
• (mechanism for collective dialogue, Africa is high in
China’s foreign agenda, e.g. White paper on “China’s
Africa Policy” issued in early 2006)
——Internationally, the appearance of “Africa fever” , Africa
is now back to the centre of world stage (Korea-Africa
Summit , EU-Africa Summit , India-Africa Summit,
Turkey-Africa Summit, etc).
——In Africa, heated debate about forming African strategy
towards China builds on, ownership building process
4. Future: Opportunities, Trends & Challenges
• Opportunities and Trends
• Developed countries are still struggling with economic
and debt crisis (stagnation has replaced growth) , their
investment and aid in Africa is decreasing
• South-South cooperation is getting new momentum (from
BRIC to BRICS, shared development between emerging
economies and Africa). By SA Standard Bank Report
(2013/2), BRICS-Africa trade has grown faster than its
trade with any other region. Its total trade with Africa
reached $340 billion in 2012, tenfold increase over the
decade. BRICS-Africa trade will surpass $500 billion by
2015, roughly 60% will be China-Africa trade
• Africa’s Rising (the last frontier: better off in governance
and stability, economic growth, middle class
expanding…..)
• “Looking East” strategy in Africa (Ethiopia、South Africa、
Rwanda, etc.)
• China’s Africa Policy: moving forward with the time
(many new focuses: NGO contact and soft power
building, etc.)
• As China shifts from exporter to investor, China’s
presence in Africa will refocus from trade to investment
Challenges Ahead
In general, need to address several “changes”:
——from “quantity expansion ” to “quality priority ”
——from “hardware” to “software”: mutual
understanding, research capacity buliding;
——from “trade” to “investment”:
tech. transfer and local employment
——from “bilateral” to “multilateral”: African
regional integration (AU now is member of
FOCAC)
——from “government-government” to “peoplepeople”
• Challenges in economic cooperation:
1)Localization and Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) issue: employment of
local labor and communicate with each
other (language hurdle)
2) technical transfer: from give fish to teach
fishing (training centre)
3) maintain and sustainable development of
the infrastructure projects
(handover or joint-management)
• Challenges in people-people exchanges
(esp. NGO exchanges)
• Strong demand:
• — Bilateral relations are not only determined by
State, government, military, Party and elite, NGOs
are rising
— NGOs can help to clear up or build up those
misunderstandings between China and Africa
(neo-colonialism, resources-plunder, African
discrimination, etc)
• —Situation changes both in Africa and China
In Africa: NGOs develop quickly and play an
increasing important role in the society (postCold War democracy development, civil society,
media)
In China: Government has begun to attach
importance to NGOs as well. (the number of
NGOs is growing dramatically, the areas NGOs
have involved in is expanding greatly as well)
—Some differences:
In Africa: NGOs develops much earlier, have
joined political movement (anti-apartheid and
anti-authoritarian regime) for long time and also
involved in international affairs.
In China: NGOs are still in early development
stage, more works have still been engaged in
social (such as environmental protection) and
economic fields. Few activities are related with
international issues.
• China now is catching up:
• Institutional building :
—Chinese NGO Network for International
Exchanges was established in 2005.
(sponsored for writing a book titled “The African
NGOs and Sino-African Relations” and hosted a
conference in late 2009)
—International Poverty Reduction Center in China
(IPRCC) was established in late 2004. (DACChina study group: anti-poverty experience
sharing and several workshops, publications,)
—China-Africa Business Council: established in
2005, promoting Chinese private companies
investing in Africa
• more activities:
—Chinese People’s Association for Friendship
with Foreign Countries: long history,established
in 1954 (mutual visiting and training)
— Chinese People’s Association for Peace and
Disarmament (CPAPD),established in 1985
(held a conference titled “China-Africa Civil
Society Forum on Peace and Development” in
early June 2010 in Beijing)
— Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is in
action as well. (Chinese Africanists delegation
visited Africa, “Chinese-African Civil Society
Dialogue” held in Kenya in 2008)
—Youth volunteers dispatching: about 300
Finally, Challenges in Security risk (killing and
kidnapping)
Only in 2012, several cases happening
• — In Sudan: 29 Chinese workers kidnapped,
one died
• — Egypt: Sinai Peninsula and Cairo
• — Republic of Congo (munitions depot blast: 6
died, 31 wounded)
• Before, in Ethiopia, 2007, rebel attack in the
evening, 9 killed, 7 kidnapped
• South Africa: criminal rate high, 1 killed on 10th
March,2012
Key: how to balance“non-interference policy”
and play active role in security issue?
Thank you for your attention!!!