The Impact of the Chinese Presence in Africa

China’s recent push into Africa is driven by a desperate need to find oil and industrial raw materials to feed its resource-guzzling, and the world’s fastest growing, economy. China’s economy has grown by an average of 9 per cent per annum in the last 25 years and its energy consumption has doubled and outstripped domestic energy production. Within the decade from 1990 and 2000, China’s combined share of the world’s consumption of aluminium, copper, nickel and iron ore more than increased from 7 per cent to 15 per cent and has been rapidly growing. Rapid industrialisation has also led to industrial overproduction and Chinese firms are equally in need to cultivate new export markets for their manufactured goods.

Africa Practice

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African Foreign Policy: A question of Methodology

Political and economic challenges and opportunities lie ahead of the people, and the leaders of Africa, and conversely, the increase in oil revenue, foreign investment and trade relations with China and India represent challenges as well as opportunities for the continent. Thus, what will guide the decisions of Africa’s leadership during this critical period, and what course of action will lead to an African political consensus? Thus, in this article I advance a methodology for a united African foreign policy applied to two of Africa’s most urgent foreign policy challenges, the U.S. establishment of the African Command (AFRICOM), and the rapidly growing economic and political engagement with China.

Serie McDougal, The Journal of Pan African Studies. (2009)

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chinese soft power and its implications for the United States: Competition and Cooperation in the Developing World

China in recent years has been pursuing its national interests through its exercise internationally of soft power and economic power as it projects a nonconfrontational, friendly diplomacy to states in developing regions. China is using its soft-power projection to promote its own national interests, not as a direct challenge to the United States. 

Carola McGiffert (editor), CSIS. 2009.

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AFRICOM’s Relationship to Oil, Terrorism and China

Why a combatant command for Africa? I argue that AFRICOM was formed to implement the U.S. national security strategy that seeks to strengthen states and eliminate ungoverned space, as well as establish relationships with African states that offer a means to greater state stability and foster economic development. In so doing, it counters global jihadist by denying them haven among weak governments or in ungoverned areas. It protects U.S. interests in resources by helping governments become more stable. And it competes with the Chinese approach that could worsen the status quo of ineffective states and ungoverned space. Indeed, the U.S. approach of increasing state effectiveness makes African countries less susceptible to the problems that may arise from the Chinese approach and so serves China’s interests in access to natural resources.

Carmel Davis, Orbis

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The EU and China's Engagement in Africa

China’s engagement in Africa has obliged the EU to re-evaluate its own relationship with that continent. Since 2008, in an attempt to resolve the conflicts of norms and interests, the EU has proposed establishing a trilateral dialogue and cooperation mechanism between the EU, China and Africa, which so far has not yielded any substantial results. The differences between China’s and the EU’s Africa policies are mainly visible in two areas: aid and security. The contradiction between their respective aid policies lies in China’s ‘no-strings-attached aid’ versus European ‘conditionality’ or emphasis on ‘fundamental principles’. With regard to their security approaches in Africa, China’s non-interference policy and the European concept of human security are clearly not on the same wavelength. Promoting common normative values and principles is at the core of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which is important for the EU’s self-construction at present. China’s non-interference policy is related to its domestic security and stability and in this context it engages in its own rhetoric. In matters of principle it is difficult for both sides to make compromises or accept limitations imposed by the other.

Liu Lirong, European Union Institute for Security Studies

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