China covets African oil and trade
John Hill
The government in Beijing has launched a major diplomatic effort to secure inroads into the African oil and infrastructure marketplace. John Hill examines the recent successes and implications of Chinese investment in the region.
Beijing is substantially deepening its political and economic relations with Africa, largely in an effort to gain access to the continent's oil reserves and markets.
In May 2004, Wu Xiaoling, Vice-Governor of the People's Bank of China, said that Sino-African trade had reached US$18.55bn in 2003, an increase of almost 50 per cent over the previous year.
China's interest in Africa is twofold. First, the 53 African governments represent a significant diplomatic prize: Taipei and Beijing have long competed for diplomatic recognition from African states in order to bolster their competing claims to international legitimacy (eight currently still recognise Taiwan over China). As Chinese President Hu Jintao said during his state visit to Gabon in February (he also visited Egypt and Algeria): "The Chinese people will never forget that it was due to the strong support of the vast number of developing countries, those in Africa included, that China successfully regained its lawful seat in the United Nations (UN) [in 1971]."
But, more importantly, China desperately needs oil to sustain its nine per cent-plus economic growth rate. This is driving Beijing's efforts to gain ground on the African continent, which now supplies 25 per cent of its oil imports. China became the second largest oil consumer in the world in 2004, with imports totalling more than 100 million tonnes (approximately 800 million barrels). China's requirements will continue to expand and this could lead it into direct competition with the US over access to the world's oil supplies.
China is able to expand its influence in Africa partly because it is viewed with more credibility than Western states with imperialist legacies. "Its policy of emphasising non-interference in other states' internal affairs means that aid is not submitted to political conditionality as it is for Western states," Dr Dominique Jacquin-Berdal, an expert on the Horn of Africa at the London School of Economics, told JIR. Beijing is also freer to operate in areas such as Sudan, where issues such as human rights limit the range of actions available to Western governments and companies. On the other hand, it is only in these problem areas that Western oil companies have left an opening for the Asian newcomers.
Jacquin-Berdal pointed out that it is not simply a case of China wooing Africa, however: She said: "African states are seasoned at playing one power off against another to get the most aid." The constant parade of African leaders visiting Beijing expect the Chinese government to hand out hospitals, dams and other infrastructure projects with few strings attached, in return for their diplomatic support. China, as she puts it, "is deepening its roots in Africa". Not only does this freeze out Taiwan, but it also garners influence for China instead of the US.
