China returns to Africa: destructive or constructive engagement?

The GPPi held a joint event with the Hertie School entitled “China Returns to Africa: Destructive or Constructive Engagement?” The panel discussion took place at the Hertie School and included Daniel Large, Research Director at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Lecturer at Oxford University as well as a Fellow with GPPi, and Denis Tull, Research Fellow with the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. Bjoern Conrad, Research Associate of GPPi, chaired the event and the subsequent discussion.

The presenters argued that there is an urgent need to go beyond the simplistic understanding of China's role in Africa that dominates the newspaper headlines. Zooming in on the case of Sudan, Daniel Large argued that China's previous engagement in Africa (that of the revolutionary Communist China which started 50 years ago) was thick on revolutionary rhetoric but thin on content. The current involvement is thick on substance but much thinner on the ability to stick to principles. Despite the rhetoric, China's involvement in Sudan goes well beyond the business only approach that is often propagated. Rather than promoting a business only approach, according to Large China finds itself increasingly embedded in the muddy waters of African politics.

In his presentation on the oil nexus, Ricardo Soares de Oliveira emphasized that in many ways China's way of doing business is no radical departure from the way the West has pursued its oil interests in Africa. He also stressed that China's impact is likely to be beneficial in places where there is a foundation for good governance. In badly run countries with non-developmental elites, China's presence is likely to deepen the already negative development outcomes. This, however, is mostly due to path-dependence and the role of the local elites, and less a direct consequence of China's presence. At the same time, Soares de Oliveira highlighted China's four prong approach: the willingness to go into frontier locations; easy financing for state-run companies; package deals that promise infrastructure investments; and vanity projects as part of an overall oil deal plus the deployment of the language of sovereign equality and the inviolability of sovereignty.

Denis Tull analysed the European Union’s reaction to the "Chinese challenge" in Africa. In line with his co-panelists, Tull observed that the growing Chinese presence introduces an element of competitiveness into a region where the West held a monopoly after the end of the Cold War. Part of this competition, Tull argued, might well be healthy. The EU's reaction thus far has been sober. Tull referred to the EU Commission's proposal for a trilateral dialogue between Africa, China and Europe that points in the right direction but might not gain too much traction on the ground because of lack of interest on the Chinese (and African) side.