Africa's voice low-key in partnership with China

The ninth Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Beijing took place under the theme of ‘Joining hands to advance modernisation and build a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future’. But how shared can that future be between the Asian economic giant and Africa, questions Bhaso Ndzendze in a Moneyweb analysis. He notes that eight summits since 2000 have not resulted in mutual gain, particularly in trade and industrialisation for Africa. ‘China has reaped most of the benefits. The fault lies with Africa’s lack of a strategy for engagement with China. The China-Africa co-operation forum has become the most important event on the African international relations calendar. More African leaders attend these summits than the UN General Assembly. Although the EU, France, South Korea and the US are important to the African continent, they do not have the same ambition as China or the kind of free hand that China’s authoritarian system allows its leaders. The Forum on China-Africa Co-operation is, therefore, important for African leaders because it often leads to big promises that outweigh anything that can be promised by other partners in one sitting.’

The author notes that the forum’s defined purpose is to be a platform for equal consultation, enhancing understanding, expanding consensus, strengthening friendship and promoting co-operation. ‘It has become clear, however, that the forum is a platform for China to dole out aid and loans to African countries and to articulate priorities that serve its own broader ambitions. Africa’s voice is minimal in agenda-setting due mostly to the multiplicity of African states, African Union weakness and competing needs among African countries. 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. One of the many hindrances to following a single African strategy towards China is the number of countries on the continent. The forum encompasses nearly all African countries with the exception of eSwatini, 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 towards China, which operates as a single actor and can have a coherent set of objectives across governments over a long period,' Ndzendze notes.

Full Moneyweb analysis