China Reaps Most Benefits Of The Africa Relationship

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Africa needs a concerted approach towards China and all of its so-called strategic partnerships. The AU Commission should negotiate and set the overall direction in these forums.

Africa-China relations since 2000

Since its inception, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has seen China promise tens of billions of dollars in aid, investment and loans to African states. The figure most often cited in recent years is the $60 billion to be disbursed over three years, first between 2015 and 2018, and then between 2018 and 2021.

However, there is some ambiguity about this committed figure. It is not clear how much of this amount has actually been disbursed, indicating that China may have not lived up to its promises.

No official statistics have been released, and the African side has not insisted on a more transparent approach. So Beijing has near absolute power over information and the discourse about the relationship. China also reportedly broadens definitions of what counts as aid (by including interest-free loans under this category, for example) to suit its political needs.

What has been observable, however, is the level of infrastructure and industrial cooperation between Africa and Chinese companies, some with partial state ownership.

Chinese companies have cooperated with African governments in constructing railways, airports, harbors, bridges and information and communication technology infrastructure. These, however, are the products of bilateral engagement between China and individual African countries, as they pursue their own foreign policies, more than any collective African strategy. The piecemeal engagement leads to greater bargaining power for the Chinese side.

My research shows that the gains from bilateral deals largely go to China: the equipment, high-level personnel and technical experts come from China. There has been little to no technology and skills transfer from China to Africa. The local populations mainly participate in labor work and government relations in the projects.

Africa's lack of a strategy

China has had a long-standing Africa Strategy , published in 2006. Nearly two decades later, Africa has no China strategy.

Beijing's strategy presents China as seeking to be a partner in Africa's development, while recognizing the continent's mineral and strategic value. Thus, more than any other major power, China has pursued its relationship with Africa in a concerted long-term fashion.

For its part, Africa has not been proactive and still engages with Beijing in an individualized and haphazard manner.

One of the many hindrances to following a single African strategy toward China is the number of countries on the continent. The forum encompasses nearly all African countries with the exception of Eswatini [formerly Swaziland], which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan .

On the face of it this would appear to be an advantage for Africa: more than 50 states against one. However, the advantage is toward China, which operates as a single actor and can have a coherent set of objectives across governments over a long period.

Then, there's the weakness of the African Union .

The African side does have, at least on paper, a single entity. The AU Commission , which is headed by a chairperson elected by the AU's Heads of State and Government Assembly to a five-year term (renewable once), is empowered to draft Africa's position in international negotiations.