Africa/China relations

Chinese-African relations have evolved, says expert

by Laura Angela Bagnetto

Article published on the 2009-11-18 Latest update 2009-11-18 16:09 TU

The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa by Deborah Brautigam
(Credit: Oxford University Press)

China, as a major trading partner with the continent of Africa, is starting to pay more attention to its press: not only the international community as a whole, but African governments and African rights organisations, which is shaping policy between the two entities, according to Deborah Brautigam, author of The Dragon's Gift: the Real Story of China in Africa.

Brautigam, who has been working on China-Africa relations since 1983, believes that those outside of the China and Africa spectrum have a static view of the relationship.

Western governments started to notice five years ago because China was starting to have problems with countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan, and in Zambia, where anti-Chinese riots took place.

"I think in the past five years the Chinese have learned a lot, and with the current leadership in China there has been a lot of emphasis on harmony," says Brautigam.

She cites one result of their new strategy: the new programme the Chinese rolled out for African countries during the latest Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt earlier this month. "They are setting up a fund for small and medium enterprises for African firms," she says.

"Three years ago [at the last FOCAC conference] there was nothing like that," she adds.

China has been less successful in other ways, but is leaning towards improving. "They are also going to ber putting more effort into social responsibility, because they realise the way the Chinese co-operate overseas has been getting a bad reputation," she says.

"They can try to lead by example, although the example in China is a little problematic since they don't really have a lot of social responsibility at a firm level in China, either," she says.

One specific example of how their attitudes in Africa are changing is in South Africa, one of China's strongest trading partners, says Brautigam. Apprehensive of Chinese textiles entering a strong, unionised textile market in South Africa, the two governments worked together to develop Chinese export restrictions for a two-year period.

"During that period, South African unions were supposed to use that breathing space to restructure the textile industry in order to deal with the competition. They didn't do that," says Brautigam.

"They spent the entire two years thinking about that, and it was only after the two years that they came up with an action plan for the textile industry," she adds, saying that China had agreed to give money towards retraining textile workers, but this money was only spent on general vocational training in textiles. 

"They are both World Trade Organisation partners, and they [China] didn't need to do this... I doubt it will happen again," she adds.

In her book, the Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, Brautigam maintains that China-Africa relations are not necessarily what is perceived, adding that the relationship has been mythologised. 

"We have an idea that China made a beeline to rogue states because those are the states we are looking at," she says. But China has been working on business relations in all 53 African countries, even those who do not have political ties to China.

Overall, China is not discriminating as to who it does business with, but the outcomes in different countries are varied, which depends on the countries themselves. Both Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been involved in civil war, she says, but Angola's relationship with China is much more fruitful because they are firm on what they want - mainly infrastructure. The DRC, on the other hand, is less clear, which has made trade difficult, says Brautigam.