CNPC – China National Petroleum Corporation
DFID – Department for International Development (UK)
DRC – Democratic Republic of Congo
EAC – East African Community
EU – European Union
FDI – Foreign Direct Investment
FOCAC – Forum on China–Africa Cooperation
FRELIMO – Frente para a Libertação de Moçambique
G20 – Group of 20
ID-CCP – International Department of the CCP
IDP – internally displaced person
IMF – International Monetary Fund
MFA – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
MINUSMA – UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali
MOFCOM – Ministry of Commerce
MOU – Memorandum of Understanding
MPLA – Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola
NEPAD – New Partnership for Africa’s Development
NDB – New Development Bank
NGO – Non-governmental organization
OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
PLA – People’s Liberation Army
POC – Protection of Civilians
PRC – People’s Republic of China
RMB – renminbi
SAIIA – South African Institute of International Affairs
SEZ – Special Economic Zone
SGR – Standard Gauge Railway
SOE – State-owned enterprise
SWAPO – South-West Africa People’s Organization
TAZARA – Tanzanian–Zambian Railway Authority
TICAD – Tokyo International Conference on African Development
UK – United Kingdom
UNCTAD – UN Conference on Trade and Development
UNGA – UN General Assembly
UNHRC – UN Human Rights Council
UNSC – UN Security Council
UNMISS – UN Mission in South Sudan
UNOG – UN Office at Geneva
US – United States of America
WHO – World Health Organization
WTO – World Trade Organization
ZANU–PF – Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front
Tables and Boxes
TABLES
1 China–Africa Trade, 2002–2019
2 China Imports from Africa: Top 10 Countries, 2019
3 China Exports to Africa: Top 10 Countries, 2019
4 Chinese FDI Flows to African Countries: Top 10 Recipients in 2019
5 Chinese Loan Commitments to Africa, 2000–2018
6 Chinese Loan Commitments to Africa by Lender, 2000–2018
7 Top Arms-Supplying Countries to African Countries, 2014–2019
8 China’s Contribution to UN Peacekeeping by Mission in Africa, 2020
BOXES
1 ANC–CCP Party Relations
2 Gold Mining in Ghana
3 Chinese in Namibia: Becoming a Single Social Field?
4 South Sudan: Gaining Experience Under Fire
Introduction
Two large maps of Africa and China, under the caption ‘Friendship Peace Cooperation Development’, stood out at an official exhibition off Tiananmen Square in November 2006. The Africa map was filled with images of smiling children, a baobab tree, a bare-chested man drumming, and hints of the ruins of an ancient civilization. That of China was filled with images of the Great Wall, Forbidden City and other civilizational achievements. At the time, the Chinese government was hosting the third Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and Beijing had been carefully prepared to welcome leaders and delegations from some 48 African countries. Billboards proclaiming ‘win–win cooperation’ and other official slogans signalled the Chinese government’s portrayal of China as a different, progressive partner of the continent. This FOCAC put China–Africa on the map of global attention, and catalysed interest in China’s suddenly visible engagement with the continent. Cliché images aside, the emptiness of this map of the African continent, however, suggested ignorant paternalism at a time when relations were rapidly developing.
Much has changed since then, as has become evident in the ‘New Era’ of China’s relations with Africa. China’s New Era is the era of Xi Jinping. Since taking power as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2012, and becoming state president in March 2013, Xi Jinping has presided over a transformation in China’s domestic and global affairs. In 2018, at another FOCAC in Beijing, he welcomed ‘African countries aboard the express train of China’s development’ and declared: ‘No one could hold back the Chinese people or the African people as we march towards rejuvenation.’ China committed financing in Africa of $60bn and a marked expansion of its investment in human capital and training. Xi Jinping reportedly met the leaders of 53 African countries for an event described by China’s Foreign Minister as setting ‘a new record in FOCAC history, and indeed, in all the diplomatic activities China ever hosted’.1 Welcoming Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Burkina Faso, which had previously supported Taiwan, the summit confirmed China’s near total victory over Taiwan in the continent. Africa, as the President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré said, had ‘chosen China’. This FOCAC showed how established China’s relations with Africa had become in Xi Jinping’s New Era.
This book aims to bring the China–Africa story up to date.2 It argues that politics defines China’s New Era Africa relations most, thus challenging conventional wisdom and popular associations about China’s relations with Africa, which hold that ‘Chinese leaders see Africa mainly as a source of natural resources.’3 Politics is a fluid, highly contested concept, which attracts simple definitions but defies easy characterization. Using a more expansive understanding, this book situates the politics of relations in terms of Chinese and African histories, institutional frameworks and politics, before exploring select key themes: China and Africa in global politics, evolving economic ties, the China model and African politics, Chinese–African relations, and China’s expanding security engagement in the continent.
China–Africa relations have never been just about politics or economics but shifting combinations of both across different historical periods.