China is now more influential inAfrica than was the Soviet Union and seems to be competing with the US for top spot

Patrick Laurence

Seen in the context of history since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the recent eight-nation, 12-day visit to Africa of President Hu Jintao symbolises a singular triumph for China.

From a position where China was overshadowed by the Soviet Union and the United States in the battle for influence in Africa between 1960 and 1990 - the building by Chinese engineers of the Tanzam railway line notwithstanding - the PRC has surged ahead with spectacular success in Africa.

China has long since surpassed the Soviet Union - or more accurately, the Russian Federation - as an influential force in Africa. It is, moreover, vying with the United States for the position as the pre-eminent foreign power in Africa.

Hu - whose recent visit to Africa is the third in the past three years - is an increasingly familiar figure in Africa.

By contrast presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and George Bush of the US cast far smaller shadows over Africa - though Bush, of course, looms large internationally because of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq during his presidency.

China's resurgence in Africa from the late 1990s is markedly different from its first forays when Mao Zedong presided like a colossus over the world's most populous state.

Instead of seeking to proselytise ideologically by propagating communism, China these days is seeking to expand trade ties and investment opportunities and proclaiming its commitment to the doctrine of non-interference in the political affairs of sovereign African states.

If, as some observers think, China represents a new colonialist threat to Africa, its weapons are not those of the 19th century gunboats or the 20th century marines.

They are, ironically, policies praising the wealth-generating powers of free trade and foreign investment, underpinned by declarations of Sino-African equality and fraternity - as Hu proclaimed during his talks with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria last week.

President Mbeki is on record as arguing that Chinese expansion into Africa is tempered by its own experience of having to fight for its freedom from 19th and 20th century imperialism and its handmaiden colonialism, and that therefore China's growing presence in Africa is not contaminated by undertones of racial superiority or overt ambitions of territorial or cultural colonisation in Africa.

The compelling power behind China's expansion into Africa is its booming economy and the associated need for natural resources, particularly oil. The PRC's annual GDP growth has risen to more than 10% in the last decade.

Africa as a mineral-rich continent makes it a natural destination for re-energised Chinese corporations - some of which are still state-owned and controlled, but a growing number of which are increasingly powered by Chinese entrepreneurs, often working in partnership with foreign companies that have relocated to China's free economic zones.

An indicator of the spectacular Chinese expansion into Africa is its growth in South Africa, a relatively recent development, given South Africa's belated recognition of the PRC instead of the Republic of China (Taiwan), less than a decade ago

To quote from briefing notes prepared by Ambassador Liu Guijin of PRC for Hu's visit: "South Africa is China's second biggest trade partner in Africa and China is South Africa's fifth biggest trade partner. In 2006 the bilateral trade volume reached $9,856-billion (or more than R70-billion), up 35% over the previous year".

Two cardinal facts should be borne in mind when assessing China's drive in Africa:

nIts foreign policy, like that of states around the globe, is fundamentally motivated by national interest - declaration of commitment to equality and fraternity notwithstanding.

nNational interest dedicates that it should secure as large a portion of Africa's national resources for itself as possible, with the need for oil topping the list.

On the theme of China's apparently unquenchable thirst for Africa's oil and its willingness to invest billions of rands in pursuit of additional supplies of oil, it is not surprising that in each of Hu's three official trips to Africa his itinerary included an oil-rich country - Sudan in 2007, Nigeria in 2006 and Algeria in 2004.

To make these points is not to deny that China's foreign policy mandarins are astute enough to recognise that it is in Beijing's interest to take cognisance of complaints from African host countries about the negative impact of the influx of Chinese products and/or the poor industrial relations policies of some Chinese companies.

One thinks of the disruption caused in South Africa's textile and clothing industries by the inflow of low-cost products, as well as the anger aroused in Zambia by the low wages and questionable safety measure at a Chinese mine on the copper belt where as explosion in 2005 reportedly killed 45 workers.

Instead of denying these problems Ambassador Liu is quoted by Reuters as saying that Hu would "warn Chinese employers to halt unwelcome behaviour that poisons their reputation among locals".

Furthermore, according to China's state news agency, Xinhua, Hu has advised Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir that an efficient peacekeeping force, drawn from the United Nations, as well as the African Union, is required to restore peace to the troubled western region of Darfur.

Adherence to the doctrine of non-interference apparently prevents him from doing more than advising al-Bashir.

Hu, however, is at risk of being seen as shielding al-Bashir and thereby giving comfort to the leader of a government suspected of complicity in the Darfur conflict and who, for that reason, was recently denied the presidency of the African Union though he was the next in line for that titular position.

Those African states that fear China's offers of trade, investment, aid and debt relief may have hidden costs should utilise the maxim of experienced negotiators - bargain for as much as you need to justify what you have got to give.

While it is wise for Africans to view the Chinese as ordinary mortals with their fair share of human foibles, they should remember too that in the post-Mao Zedong era, they have neither landed a single soldier on African soil nor come in the company of political commissars bearing copies of Mao's Little Red Book.

They have done nothing comparable to the destructive role of the US in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the US was first implicated - via the CIA - in the murder of the Congo's democratically elected premier, Patrice Lumumba, and then in propping up the dictatorial regime of Joseph Mobutu, aka Mobutu Sese Seko.

It should be remembered that corruption was so rife under Mobutu's regime that was it was dubbed a kleptocracy or government by thieves.

The Star's contributing editor Patrick Laurence is an independent political analyst.