Sino-African relations

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A map indicating trading routes used around the 1st century CE centred on the Silk Road.
A map indicating trading routes used around the 1st century CE centred on the Silk Road.

Sino-African relations refers to the political, economic and cultural connections between China and Africa. Relations began with the voyages made by Chinese admiral Zheng He and his fleet during the Ming Dynasty, coming upon the Horn of Africa and following the coast down to the Mozambique Channel. The goal of those expeditions was to spread Chinese culture by bringing gifts and granting titles from the Ming emperor to the local rulers, establishing a broad tribute ­paying circle.[1]

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with other African nations. As of August 2007, there are more than 750,000 Chinese nationals working in different African countries.[2] Trade between China and African nations has increased 700% during the 1990s.[3] China is currently Africa's third largest trading partner, after the United States and former colonial power France.

Contents

[edit] Historical relationships

China and Africa have a long history of trade relations, sometimes over third parties, dating back as far as 202 BC and 220 AD (Snow 1988, p 2). The first mention of Africa in Chinese sources was in the Yu-yang-tsa-tsu by Tuan Ch'eng-shih (died 863 A.D.), a compendium of general knowledge. In this he writes about the "land of Po-pa-li", which refers to Somalia. In 1226 A.D. Chao Ju-kua, commissioner of foreign trade at Quanzhou in the Fujian province of China, completed his Chu-fan-chih (Description of Barbarous Peoples). It discusses Zanzibar (Ts'ong-pa) and Somalia (Pi-P'a-Lo) (Freeman-Grenville 1975).

In October of 1415, Chinese explorer Zheng He reached the eastern coast of Africa and sent the first of two giraffes as gifts to the Chinese emperor Yong'le (Snow 1998, p. 23).

The establishment of modern Sino-African relations dates back to the 1960s when Zhou Enlai made a ten-country tour between December 1963 and January 1964 to Africa. Relations at this time were often reflective of China's foreign policy in general. China "began to cultivate ties and offer[...] economic, technical and military support to African countries and liberation movements in an effort to encourage wars of national liberation and revolution as part of an international united front against both superpower" (Muekalia 2004, p.6). China's relations with Africa were affected by its relations with the Soviet Union and the United States. For example, China's original close ties to the anti-apartheid and liberation movement, African National Congress, in South Africa, but as China's relations with the Soviet Union worsened and the ANC moved closer to the Soviet Union, China moved further away from the ANC towards the Pan-africanist Congress (Taylor 2000, p. 93).

China relied on several principles, among them supporting the independence of African countries while investing in infrastructural projects. During the Cold War a few smaller nations entered in alliances with China, such as Burundi under Michel Micombero.

Since 1997, around 30 African heads of state have visited China. The ministerial meeting, Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in Beijing in October 2000 was the first collective dialogue between China and African countries. The FOCAC Summit and the third Ministerial Conference were held in Beijing from Novermeber 3 to 5, 2006.

[edit] Trade

In 1999, the total Sino-African trade volume was US$6.5 billion[4] However, by 2005, total Sino-African trade had reached US$39.7 billion and it reached US$55 billion on 2006, making China today one of the top three largest trading partners of Africa.[5]

[edit] Events

Banner for the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing
Banner for the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing
  • On December 24, 1988 two male African students were entering their campus at Hohai University in Nanjing with two Chinese women. The occasion was a Christmas Eve party. A quarrel about correct identification between one of the Africans and a Chinese security guard, who had ordered the Africans to register their guests, led to a brawl between the African and Chinese students on the campus which lasted till the morning, leaving 13 students injured. (See Nanjing anti-African protests)
  • In the early to mid 2000s, Chinese investors and state agencies spent billions on roadbuilding in Kenya, a hydroelectric dam in Ghana and a mobile phone network in Ethiopia. Nigeria, where China has 45% of all offshore oil reserves[7], has a Mandarin-language newspaper (West African United Business Daily) serving 50,000 readers — a community greater in number than the British ever were, even at the height of British colonial rule in Nigeria.[8] In this exchange, China is picking up natural resources — oil, precious minerals — to feed its expanding economy and new markets for its burgeoning enterprises. In 2005, two-way trade had increased to $42 billion.[9]
  • On November 3, 2006, China hosted a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing with the leaders of 48 African countries designed to cement its economic and political influence in the continent. Over 2000 business were being negotiated at the time. At the opening of the summit, President Hu Jintao stated China would offer $3 billion in preferential loans and $2 billion in export credits over the next three years. China announced that it would double its foreign aid though it did not offer details.[9]

[edit] See also

Africa Portal
China Portal

[edit] References and Notes

  • Freeman-Grenville, G.P.S. (ed.) 1975: The East African Coast. Select Documents form the first to the earlier nineteenth century. London: Rex Collings.
  • Muekalia, D. J. 2004. Africa and China's strategic partnership. African Security Review 13, no. 1: 5-11.
  • Snow, Philip. 1988. The Star Raft: China’s encounter with Africa. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, New York. ISBN 1-555-84184-8.
  • Taylor, I. 1998. China's foreign policy towards Africa in the 1990's. Journal of Modern African Studies 36, 3: 443-460.
  1. ^ CCTV (2002-12-24). Zheng He's Voyages. Retrieved on 2006-08-13.
  2. ^ Entrepreneurs From China Flourish in Africa. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
  3. ^ China’s trade safari in Africa - Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2005
  4. ^ chinaembassy.org.zw Sino-African Relations
  5. ^ Sino-African trade to hit 50 bln U.S. dollars in 2006 - Xinhua News Agency, October 18, 2006
  6. ^ BBC News. "Chad chooses China over Taiwan", BBC, 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2007-01-14. 
  7. ^ "CNOOC takes 45% stake in Nigerian oil", PRC Embassy website
  8. ^ Is China the new colonial power in Africa? Taipei Times, November 1, 2006
  9. ^ a b "China to double its aid to Africa", BBC News, 4 November 2006
  10. ^ "Chinese leader boosts Sudan ties", BBC News, 2 February 2007
  11. ^ "President Hu's Africa Tour", china.org.cn (accessed 2 February 2007

[edit] Further reading

  • Alden, Chris, China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon?, Zed Books, 2007, ISBN 1842778641
  • Ian Taylor China's New Role in Africa Boulder, CO; Lynne Rienner.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Chinese Involvement in Africa’s Oil Industries’, Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence, vol. 6, no. 1, 2008, pp. 1-13.
  • Shaun Breslin and Ian Taylor ‘Explaining the Rise of “Human Rights” in Analyses of Sino-African Relations’, Review of African Political Economy, no. 115, 2008, pp. 59-71.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China’s Expansion into Africa’ in Africa South of the Sahara, 2008 London: Routledge, 2008, pp. 35-40.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Sino-African Relations and the Problem of Human Rights’, African Affairs, 107, 2008, pp. 63-87.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China’s Relations with Nigeria’, Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs , vol. 96, issue 392, 2007, pp. 631-645.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Governance in Africa and Sino-African Relations: Contradictions or Confluence?’, Politics, vol. 27, no. 3, 2007, pp. 139–146.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Sino-African Relations in the Twenty-First Century: Time for Dialogue’, Chinese Cross Currents, vol. 4, no. 2, 2007, pp. 8-21.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China and Africa: Towards the Development of a Literature’, Afrika Spectrum, vol. 42, no. 2, 2007, pp. 379-388.
  • Ian Taylor China and Africa: Engagement and Compromise London Routledge, 2006.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China’s Oil Diplomacy in Africa’, International Affairs, vol. 82, no. 5, September 2006, pp. 937-960.
  • Ian Taylor ‘The “All-weather Friend? Sino-African Interaction in the Twenty-first Century’ in Ian Taylor and Paul Williams (eds.) Africa in International Politics: External Involvement on the Continent London: Routledge 2004, pp. 83-101.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Taiwan’s Foreign Policy and Africa: The Limitations of Dollar Diplomacy’, Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 11, no. 30, February 2002, pp. 125-140.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China’s Relations with Africa in the Post-Maoist Era, 1978-1999’, in Frank Columbus (ed.) Current Politics and Economics of Africa, Volume I Huntingdon, New York: Nova Science, 2001, pp. 83-106.
  • Scarlett Cornelissen and Ian Taylor ‘The Political Economy of Chinese and Japanese Linkages with Africa: A Comparative Perspective’, Pacific Review, vol. 13, no. 4, 2000, pp. 615-633.
  • Ian Taylor ‘The Ambiguous Commitment: The People’s Republic of China and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in South Africa’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, January 2000, pp. 91-106.
  • Ian Taylor ‘China’s Foreign Policy Towards Africa in the 1990s’, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, September 1998, pp. 443-460.
  • Ian Taylor ‘Africa’s Place in the Diplomatic Competition Between Beijing and Taipei’, Issues and Studies: Journal of Chinese Studies and International Affairs, vol. 34, no. 3, March 1998, pp. 126-143.
  • Ian Taylor China’s Foreign Policy Towards Southern Africa in the “Socialist Modernisation” Period East Asia Project Working Paper 18, Dept. of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, December 1997, 21 pp.

[edit] External links


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