China’s role in Africa--Wikileaks

There is no doubt that China has emerged as an important economic power, with China’s soaring economic power, China becomes more confident and become a high-profiled investor in Africa.

But it seems the international community is not happy with China’s heavy presence in Africa. Many Western companies complain that China’s way of doing business is going to push them lose ground in Africa. According to the article, Africa: China Dismisses U.S. Claims Over Continent, it says that leaked US diplomatic cables in 2007 describing China using bribes, cut-throat pricing strategies and coercion through senior government officials to win lucrative deals in the sector. So definitely, many Western companies criticize China practicing unfair trade to win deals.

Chinese ambassador to Kenya told a continental meeting of researchers in Nairobi that China is not an exploiter and recolonizing Africa. Ambassador also emphasized that the similar history (Both China and Africa suffered the colonialist invasion and internal disorders) shared by African countries and China will keep strengthen the tie between China-Africa relations.

As we discussed in class that many state-owned-enterprises (SOE) in China started their business to build basic infrastructure such as road, dam and bridges for African countries, but in return, China is signing up contracts with those countries to have the license for natural resources mining. But the wikileaks seems to de-legitimize China’s economic development model. It depicts the way how Chinese companies doing business is against the rule of law, not based on the transparent bidding. The state-dominated China model of development could cause more corruption in those poorest parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America—where the rule of law often simply does not exist. China’s international aid will also conflict with other international donors who support good governance and pay more attention to capacity building instead of infrastructure construction.

Tie China’s foreign aid into international communication is how China should collaborate with other international actors to build up common ground , to promote China’s positive image to its foreign public. Only by doing that, China can create economic win-win cooperation with other governments.

I also think in order to sustain the good relationship with Africa, China needs to be very cautious about its foreign policy, because it is very important to establish mutual-trust between China and Africa. After all, African countries play a vital role to support China’s international status.