Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 23:46:02 +0100
China surges AU charm offensive as it readies stage for big year in Sino-Africa relations
Beijing rebuts ‘concrete diplomacy’ jibes from West as it aggressively woos bloc ahead of annual FOCAC meeting.
ADDIS Ababa’s Roosevelt Street is this year quickly acquiring a distinctive Chinese air, as Beijing ramps up relations with the continent ahead of a major summit later this year that is expected to redefine Sino-African ties for the next three years.
Dark Chinese suits have been crammed in the corridors of the African Union’s physical address in the Ethiopian capital this past few weeks, as they sign a flurry of deals meant to further entrench their closely-analysed burgeoning relationship.
China is also racing to deliver on commitments made in 2012, when then-president Hu Jintao offered $20 billion in loans to African countries, doubling its previous pledge.
At the heads of states and government summit last month, China inked a deal with the AU that commits it to a staggering plan to connect all 54 member states through a network of modern highways, airports and high speed railways.
The deal, which even China admitted was ambitious, spans nearly half a century as the bloc looks to push its Agenda 2063 growth plan. Chinese Special Envoy to the AU Zhang Wing, also his country’s vice foreign minister, speaking through an interpreter quickly summed up the variables at play:
“This is a very grand and ambitious project but it is a feasible project. Secondly, the African economy is taking off and it is in the early days of industrialisation… and there is a huge demand on Africa’s part.
“Thirdly, China has rich experience and very matured technology in developing high speed rail, highway and regional aviation as well as industrialisation projects.”
Glowing love
State news agency Xinhua hailed the infrastructure deal as having “elevated China’s win-win relationship with Africa to a new height”. It noted that China has so far completed 1,046 projects, built railways of a total 2,233 kilometres, and 3,350 km of highways.
Other mega-deals have also been signed, including a $12 billion contract to build a 1,400-km railway along Nigeria’s coastline, the China’s largest single contract overseas.
Beijing, which has identified the AU as the central plank of relations with the continent, is glowing as it finds its love increasingly requited.
“China will be a key partner in our noble quest for transformation through industrialisation and development of modern infrastructure like high speed trains, superhighways, ports and ICT infrastructure,” AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.
Beijing will also find a trusty ally at the political helm of the bloc in Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe.
AU officials last week also signed a still-opaque deal with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which the parties said would enhance their existing union to better connect Africa and strengthen weak technological infrastructure.
China constructed the AU’s flagship building for an estimated cost of $200 million.
To demonstrate intent, Beijing last week appointed its first head of its permanent mission to the AU, following through on a pledge made by prime minister Li Keqiang when he visited the organisation’s headquarters last May.
Like many other countries, China’s ambassador to Ethiopia has often doubled up as its representative to the AU, but the establishment of a fully-fledged mission adds some more heft on the much-analysed bilateral relationship.
Veteran diplomat Kuang Weilin, who will serve as mission head, wasted little time laying out the agenda. “China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the AU…to a new high,” Chinese media quoted him saying..
“The mission will have political, economic, cultural, peace and security departments, which will benefit comprehensive cooperation and exchange between China and the AU”.
Word play
The flagship ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is not until the last quarter of the year, but Beijing is already turning up the rhetoric.
Its influential state media, in a familiar theme, has accused the West of being driven by envy, after pointed media references to China’s “concrete diplomacy”.
A hard-hitting commentary titled “The West’s baloney about China-Africa co-operation” said the West, having only taken out from Africa, was feeling increasingly sidelined by the blossoming ties and had resorted to acrimonious terms like “concrete diplomacy”.
“The West’s defamation will not eclipse China’s honesty and sincerity with African brothers…By tackling infrastructure, China and Africa have chosen to root out a bottleneck that has long checked Africa’s economic growth, and clear the way for Africa to promote self-sustained development and accelerate industrialisation.”
The triennial FOCAC will this year take place in South Africa. In a further sign of Beijing’s growing clout on the continent, South Africa president Jacob Zuma last December visited Beijing as his country was commemorating the first anniversary of iconic leader Nelson Mandela.
Zuma said that China’s advance into the region offered African countries “an opportunity to African countries to be able to free themselves from the shackles that are really colonially designed”.
The two countries traded $23.7 billion worth in 2013, with over 100 Chinese state-owned entities and multinationals invested in South Africa, Zuma added.
China has also started the year with a raft of moves to protect its interests, including behind-the-scenes pushing for a quick diplomatic resolution of the conflict in the Sudans, where it has also sent peacekeepers. Last month, Beijing handed Sudan president Omar al-Bashir the keys to his new presidential palace.