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Mail & Guardian Africa: Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) shakes hands with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Forum on Africa and China Cooperation on December 4, 2015.
Forty-eight African countries and China wrapped up a landmark summit on Saturday vowing to push for homegrown solutions to solve Africa’s peace and security woes.
The leaders met for what South African President Jacob Zuma dubbed “historic” talks, aimed at bolstering ties between the continent and its major trading partner. In a declaration adopted in Johannesburg the leaders pledged to “continue to support each other on security matters and maintain peace and security.” They agreed to implement a China-Africa peace and security plan and “support the building of the collective security mechanism in Africa.”
Forty-eight leaders attended the second summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an attendance nearly as high as the last African Union (AU) summit. Of the overall financial package, $60 million will go towards supporting the building of African Union’s new 25,000-strong multinational standby force which can respond to crises across the continent.
In January China deployed a peacekeeping battalion in South Sudan. South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Barnaba Benjamin described China’s peacekeeping mission to his country under the auspices of the United Nations as “a fundamental change in the foreign policy of China.”
Policy shift
The focus on security signals a quiet policy shift in China-Africa relations, which until now were largely centered on trade, economics and cultural exchanges. It suggests an evolution in China’s own internal politics, as the country prizes stability and certainty as much as access to raw materials, in order to consolidate its economic position.
Xi told the closing session of the talks that China and Africa “have the responsibility and the capability to play a bigger role in international affairs.”
A fortnight ago, and after months of speculation, China confirmed that it would be setting up a logistics hub for military operations in Djibouti. Beijing has signed a 10-year lease for the base in the strategically vital African country, China’s first “military location” on the continent.
While China is Africa’s largest trading partner, with two- way flows exceeding $220 billion last year, the continent primarily exports commodities, while purchasing manufactured goods. Chinese investment in Africa fell by more than 40% in the first half of 2015 as economic growth in the world’s largest buyer of raw materials slowed, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting an economic expansion of 3.8% this year for sub-Saharan Africa and 4.3% in 2016, down from 5% last year.
China offered a $60-billion-dollar financial package to target 10 areas, including industrialization, infrastructure, financial services, poverty reduction and peace and security. Mohammed al-Bairi, Foreign Minister of strife-torn Libya welcomed China’s expanding role in Africa from just economic and infrastructure to peace and security. “It’s a way forward for us in Africa,” he said.
Higher strategic level
South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the decisions of the meeting had “upgraded the partnership to a higher strategic level” and “will alter the trajectory of our continent so significantly.” Leaders at the summit dismissed suggestions that China was exploiting African resources and becoming a de facto new coloniser. “That’s nonsense,” Zimbabwe’s veteran leader Robert Mugabe told China’s CCTV. “China never colonized Africa or anyone. It is them (the West) who plundered Africa and they are still doing so up to now”. “China is offering win-win partnerships in Africa, and we will benefit from it”. Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta echoed Mugabe’s sentiments. “The commitments made by Xi are a clear indication that China is committed to Africa’s development agenda on the basis of a win-win partnership,” Kenyatta told reporters at the summit on Saturday. “Here is a partner who is leaving something behind, who is working with us to pull our countries out of poverty.”
African countries from Ghana to Zambia have been hit by lower commodity prices and prospect of higher U.S. interest rates that is driving investors away from riskier assets and contributing to weaker currencies. Despite the slowdown, four of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world will still be in Africa next year, according to IMF forecasts.
“The competition in China is very tight,” Martyn Davies, managing director for emerging markets and Africa at Frontier Advisory Deloitte, told Bloomberg by phone. “Africa is still frontier market stuff, but profits are relatively high, corporate profits are very high in Africa, and I think the Chinese realize that.”
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