 |
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Sweet n'sour
By Gamal Nkrumah
Long before the first Europeans set foot in Africa, Chinese traders of the Ming Dynasty were doing brisk business in eastern Africa. Common interests have a tendency to bring countries together. The shared concern du jour is the challenge posed by globalisation, and it is driving the Chinese to revive the African connection. But the onus is now being placed on modern political ties, first cultivated by Mao Zedong and his premier Chou En-Lai, stressing Beijing's Third World credentials.
Mao's China was a sizzling hotbed of anti-imperialism and it assisted with Africa's anti-colonial struggle. "My enemy's enemy is my friend," explained Mao. In spite of the relative dilution of the anti-imperialist factor today, China is still widely perceived as a friend of Africa. In the post-Mao period, the overriding concern of Beijing in Africa was countering Soviet inroads into the continent. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has virtually ceased to play a role in African affairs, putting an end to the. bitter rivalries between Beijing and Moscow over Africa.
On the other hand, China's rivalry with the United States in Africa has intensified in the aftermath of the Cold War.
China has set itself up to compete with an increasingly influential US in Africa. Beijing has discovered that forming a united stance with Africa has become easier because of common economic interests. Three factors are pushing China to review its traditional relations with Africa: growing concern over Western encroachments on Chinese economic interests in Africa -- most notably in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, faith in Africa's long-term economic potential and the failure of last year's Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting.
In the midst of all this, China is trying to make a bid for Third World leadership. China wants to play a new international role as champion of Third World interests in international trade negotiations, and its partnership with Africa is fast emerging as its testing ground.
At the first ever China-Africa Co-operation Forum convened last week, 80 ministers from 44 African countries converged on the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital Beijing. African leaders sang China's praises. The Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Salim Ahmed Salim pointed out that the fact that many African heads of state and ministers attended the China-Africa Forum was of "great significance".
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa said China's assistance is sorely needed in Africa's struggle against poverty, disease, hunger, poor infrastructure and indebtedness. The Secretary General Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Erasmus Mwencha noted that China was in a position to assist Africa in financial and commercial matters. Mwencha paid tribute to China's long-standing support for Africa's anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle. Prega Ramsamy the interim executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) concurred, adding that developing countries must improve competitiveness by co-operating more closely with each other.
The lesson of experience is the importance of moving as swiftly as possible. Zambian President Frederick Chiluba noted that the Chinese-built Tanzanian-Zambian railway (TAZARA) was a showpiece of Sino-African economic cooperation in the 1970s. Landlocked Zambia, flanked by the then Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and sandwiched between the apartheid-run countries of South Africa, SouthWest Africa (Namibia) and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), turned to Tanzania as its only liberated outlet to the sea.
For the first time, Beijing has started to seek trade agreements with countries that have been in Taiwan's economic clutches. In an unprecedented move, Beijing invited all eight of the African countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Previously, Beijing insisted that it sever all diplomatic and commercial ties with African countries that recognise and deal with Taiwan.
In another unprecedented development, the more economically dynamic Chinese provinces are now preparing to deal directly with African countries. Li Chang Chun, member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and secretary for the CPC Guandong Provincial Committee, said at the close of the China-Africa Forum that Guandong will send a large economic and trade delegation to tour Africa during the first half of next year.
The Chinese also pledged to write off over $1 billion in debt owed to it by African countries. In addition, Beijing promised to increase its development assistance to Africa and announced that it will offer incentives to Chinese companies to invest in projects in the continent. "We will take various measures to tap the potential and explore new ways and areas of our economic cooperation and trade, so that a new pattern of China-Africa economic relations and cooperation based on mutual benefit and aimed at common development will gradually take shape," Jiang told the visiting African delegates.
Beijing has also actively promoted the establishment of a network of political, economic and commercial bodies that it hopes will help China to play a more effective and constructive role of its own in Africa. But is China ideally-placed for such a role? Barely a couple of days after the historic gathering, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori told his Chinese counterpart Zhou Rongji to urgently attend to the issue of debt repayments by failed Chinese international trust corporations (Citics). The Japanese government is under increasing pressure from the Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCRA), Japanese investors and financial institutions to take drastic measures against defaulting Citics. How can Africa depend on Chinese companies when the latter are scouring the international markets for funds?
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
