Chinas Engagement in African Continent - Essay Example

China’s Engagement in African Continent Name Course title Date Introduction China’s increasingly involvement in African affairs in issues related to trade, cooperation development, migration and investment has drawn significant attention. This has brought mixed reactions at the international platform. There is no clear and reliable information available that vividly explain the core reasons for the engagement. Some of the major questions arising are whether China is contributing efficiently to Africa’s continued development (Alden 2007, p.7). Likewise, others are wondering whether they are trying to get access to raw materials for their expanded manufacturing sector or they are identifying new market in the African countries. Since China withholds documents detailing the foreign financial aids as their secret, this has added complexity to the issue. However, some US researchers developed a database with information concerning China’s engagement in Africa amounting to 1700 projects worth approximated 75 billion dollars between 2000 and 2011. Furthermore, some studies have stated that the relationship between China and Africa is based on political, historical, social, economic, health, cultural, military, education, and connections (Deng 2003, p.121). Trade is the oldest tie to connect Africa and China as its roots can be traced back in the 14th century. On the other hand, some people think that China’s engagement is an intervention to support development with their capability to exploit the potential resources. Hence, this is to help advancement of the African continent to a developed status. A move that is contrary to the looters and exploiters who conned Africa off its resources and glory (Gavin 2003, p.364). This essay looks into the effectiveness, outcomes, as well as possibilities of an international intervention in an Africa crisis. Architectural and infrastructure technology For many years, China has been known for its diverse and respected knowledge and skills in architectural and infrastructure technology. They have come up with the most complex, modern and unique infrastructure systems around the world that have earned them reputable image in that sector. China has identified unexploited resources in African countries and realised that the solution to sustained growth is by investing in infrastructure system in the continent. Given that China has the technology and machinery to implement the infrastructure, they have started infrastructural development contributing significantly to African economies. The improved infrastructure has provided access to raw materials in additional to exposing some remote places and improving its standards. This has given rise to innumerable opportunities to the local population resulting to improved living standards. Since most African countries are financially unstable to fund infrastructural projects fully, they use the reserves-backed lending strategy (Pheng & Hongbin 2003, p.591). This strategy consists of some payment to China government in monetary form while the rest is cleared by exploitation of natural resources by the Chinese government or Chinese firms. This creates strong bonds between the two countries involved because both benefit financially. A good example of a case study is Angola, where after the civil war in 2004 where it was granted loan facilities worth 2 billion dollars and payment was made through crude oil exploitation by the Chinese government. This resulted to 10,000 barrels of crude oil remitted to Chinese government per day and accounted at the international oil-market cost on the spot (Friedberg 2006, p.13). In additional, this deal was worth to Angola because it accumulated to 2.2 billion dollars. Currently, this amount cannot support similar infrastructure development in the country, the infrastructure is still beneficial to the economy of Angola. In addition, other countries like Sierra Leone, Zambia and Tanzania have benefited significantly from the infrastructure programs designed by China to African countries. The Chinese firms have created job opportunities solving the unemployment problem that majorly haunts the African continent. Trade and investment The rapid economic growth in Chinese economy has triggered more trade relations with the foreign countries mostly in the African continent. China has attracted attention to the western economies by this growth and depicted a picture of being the greatest competitor, this has arisen debates globally. Praises and criticism has been experienced basing the argument on the prediction that China will be a super power and the hugest economy in the near future, overtaking United States. China’s involvement in trade in African countries is remarkable over the past decade and can be stated that China is key player in African trade transactions (Tull 2006, p.463). Export trade to China from Africa has currently grown to 15 % and this promoted to expanded market for the locally available goods and products in Africa. This new markets in China has led to increased trade deals and contributed significantly in raising the global demand for African goods and products by over 20 per cent. Statistics show that trade deals between China and Africa for 2012 stood at 163.9 billion dollars and improved trade is predicted in future. In additional, an estimated 800 China affiliated corporations are transacting businesses in African countries (Fujimoto & Shiozawa 2012, p.195). Most of these corporations are private with investments in banking, education, infrastructure, and energy sectors. Furthermore, some of the trade stimulus have been low interest rate and unconditional loans offered by Chinese government to the African countries and corporations, as well as, cancellation of debts worth over 10 million dollars by African nations to China since 2000. China has trade agreements with African countries such as Guinea, Algeria, Morocco Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia (Zafar 2007, p.124). Diplomacy relations Stahle (2008, p.346) states that, early diplomacy relations between African countries and China were strong but they were threatened and weakened by Cold War and communist philosophy. There existed strong ties between China and South Africa’s African National Congress. However, when China’s relations with Soviet Union deteriorated and South Africa opted to be affiliated with Soviet Union it shifted its support to Pan-Africanist Congress. Their main aim was to support independence of African countries from colonialists. During the Cold War period, Somalia Republic had built strong ties with Soviet Union that supported it to wage war against Ethiopia to capture Ogaden region. Later, Soviet Union changed its mind and shifted to support Ethiopia to regain Ogaden region, this broke ties with Somalia. However, China came to its rescue and signed alliances with it as well as with Burundi. Angola has also benefited significantly from China to revive and heal the country after a long period of civil war Furthermore, China has fought for formation of a permanent African post in United Nations, Nigeria has benefited and relied on the Chinese support. This has led to improved political affiliation with the African nations and over 40 head of states from Africa have visited China. Moreover, the formation of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has pooled the African nations for collective dialogue since its first meeting in October 2000 that was held at Beijing. This forum helps China and African countries debate on critical issues affecting them and the best solutions towards solving them for sustained development (Umbach 2007, p.49). New markets Beginning the August of 1979, Chinese companies were allowed by the country’s State Council to transact business operations globally. This strategy exposed China’s companies to access more raw materials, advanced technology, foreign exchange, in additional to expanding their export markets. The international markets introduce competition to goods and products sold and this helps China to improve its production quality. Due to the explosive economy, China suffers over production and saturation in its market with a variety of goods and products. This call for searching for new markets to dispose their goods and this has led to identifying African countries as potential new market for their products majorly the footwear, electronics and textile products. China has dominated markets in Angola, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia among others. Moreover, China has found new markets to develop and expose its advanced telecommunication technology in the African countries (Tegegne 2007, p.650). Among these telecommunication projects Ethiopia and Nigeria are the greatest projects that are worth 1.5 billion and 0.8 billion dollars respectively. These projects have become the backbone of national communication in the countries easing and lowering the cost of communicating. Moreover, they have opened up the rural areas with new methods of communication for the locals. This has helped improve various operations in all sectors of economy, a good example being business operations. The Chinese telecommunication giant companies, Huawei and ZTE, have contributed majorly in these projects by providing network services and selling electronic gadgets to be used in communications. Besides, an influential factor that makes China’s products dominate the African market is their competitive pricing strategy. This makes it hard for the other available products to compete fairly in the markets and Chinese products always take the largest market share. The availability of cheap labour, machinery and advanced technology helps the Chinese firms to have an added advantage to support their competitive edge. Therefore, African countries vast population are given an opportunity to own electronics that are costly to afford from other manufacturers. Hence improving the technological advancement in the region in additional to enhanced standard of living (Zafar 2007, p.119). Raw materials The rapidly growing of China’s economy requires more raw materials and energy, the available resources in China cannot support the production process. Hence, Africa is perfect option to solve their crisis and intervene as the raw materials producers. Statistics show that a third of China’s oil and gas imports come from Africa to support its high need for energy resources (Umbach 2007, p.41). Likewise, other raw materials imported from the continent are cotton, tobacco, and timber. This undertaking has stimulated a boom in the African economies as well as discovery of new sites and regions with these raw materials. Therefore, the Chinese government provides new opportunities like jobs from labour required for extraction and improved security (Tull 2006, p.465). Security empowerment Finally, China has shown increased interest to be Africa’s key economic partner but it faces some security challenges in safeguarding their investments. This has led it to accelerate its concern about improving security level in African countries. In the past China has faced security crisis while in their mission to develop Africa, the main examples are Abduction of Chinese workers working in Southern Sudan in 2004, in 2006 security officers detected a car bomb in Nigeria oil mines set to destroy Chinese machinery and properties. Likewise, in 2007 violent attacks were experienced in Chambisi copper mine that are owned by Chinese government in additional to killing of nine Chinese workers in Ogaden region of Ethiopia while Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau was exploiting oil. These among other attacks there is dire need to improve security for the sustained development in African continent to be safeguarded (Drakos & Gofas 2006, p.718). Therefore, China believes that for domestic development to be realized, the world peace must be maintained. In response to this, China has deployed their military force in Gulf region to assist in maintaining peace. On the other hand, Chinese have principles on non-interference policy and sovereignty respect that has helped it to maintain good relationship with the African countries. Therefore, China has collaborated with the local authorities to invest in intelligence and information projects aimed at improving security level by combating arms smuggling, terrorism, illegal immigration, economic crimes and drug trafficking. Research has shown that strategic leadership as well as conflict management strategies will help China to solve the existing security challenges by cooperating with internationally supported organizations that are flexible (Taylor 2006, p.76). Impacts Furthermore, Peh and Eyal (2010, p. 4729) impacts of China’s involvement can be felt around the African continent most being positive while still there exist other negative impacts. Chinese construction sector has contributed significantly to development of improved infrastructural and architectural projects. Contrary to this though on a small margin, it has stated that environmental pollution has been experienced by these undertakings. This may pose serious challenges on climatic conditions but China is working out strategies on how to enforce pollution free approach to the environment (Taylor 2006, p.89). Moreover, it has been identified that there are some illegal logging in the African forests by some Chinese companies that may influence climatic changes in the region. China has vowed to use information and intelligence strategies to eliminate all illegal trades and corporation that exploits African resources. Furthermore, due to the inefficiency in skilled labour among the African countries, increased Chinese emigration has been experienced in the past years. This needs to be controlled and policies regarding labour force to be implemented for the locals to benefit maximally from Chinese investments in African region. Training and mentorship policies will help integrate the African population into their undertaking. This will help solve the unemployment challenge in Africa as well as empowering them with knowledge and skills that will support future projects (Peh & Eyal 2010, p. 4730). In response to this, China is sending technical experts to t Africa for training purposes in additional to offering fully sponsored scholarships to African students. Examples of institutions opened up by Chinese government are Telecommunications Institute for the training and research purposes in Angola and Thorn Park Construction Training Centre in Zambia. Many have benefitted from these projects for sustained development in Africa (Alden, 2007, p.62). Conclusion Therefore, on concluding this analysis it can be realised that China involvement in Africa has been beneficial and supported the sustained growth of the region. China has stakes in trade and investments that has seen trade expand between the African nations and China for economic benefits of the parties involved. Moreover, China has used its architectural and infrastructure technology prowess to advance construction sector in African countries. Another key factor to note is that, China has strengthened its diplomacy relations in African region and maintained its non-interference and sovereignty policies. Furthermore, new markets for both imports and exports have been established both to the African countries and to China, improving diversity in the markets. Besides, security concerns in African region have seen China intervene to promote their mandate of world peace for sustained economic growth. Finally, impacts from the involvement in African region have been realized most being positive with few negatives that require to be addressed for realization of sustained developed. It is therefore clear that there is effectiveness, positive outcomes as well as great opportunities predicted in the future, as the Chinese engagement in African region continues. References Alden, C 2007 China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon?. Zed Books, King's Cross, London ISBN 1-84277-864-1. Deng, P 2003. “Foreign Investment by Multinationals from Emerging Countries: The Case of China”. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. Vol. 10, no.2, pp. 120-122. Drakos, K & Gofas, A 2006 “The Devil You Know but Are Afraid to Face: Underreporting Bias and its Distorting Effects on the Study of Terrorism” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol.50, no.5, pp. 714-735. 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London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-39740-5. Tegegne, G E 2007 “Impacts of Chinese imports and coping strategies of local producers: the case of small-scale footwear enterprises in Ethiopia” Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 647- 679. Tull, D M 2006 “China’s engagement in Africa: scope, significance and consequences” Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 459-479. Umbach, F 2007 China’s Energy and Raw Material Diplomacy and the Implications for the EU-China-Relations, China aktuell, 1, pp. 39-56. Zafar, A 2007 “The Growing Relationship Between China and Sub-Saharan Africa: Macroeconomic, Trade, Investment, and Aid Links” The World Bank Research Observer, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 103-130. Read More