Series:
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/series/china-africa-soft-power
-hard-cash> China in Africa: soft power, hard cash
China commits billions in aid to Africa as part of charm offensive –
interactive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2013/apr/29/china-c
ommits-billions-aid-africa-interactive
Database reveals government has backed 1,700 projects on continent since
2000 in apparent attempt to win favour. The country's financial commitments
are significantly larger than previous estimates
* <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/claire-provost> Claire Provost
and <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rich-harris> Rich Harris
* <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian> The Guardian, Thursday 2
May 2013 17.58 BST
*
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2013/apr/29/china-
commits-billions-aid-africa-interactive#start-of-comments> Jump to comments
(160)
China has committed $75bn (£48bn) on aid and development projects in Africa
in the past decade, according to research which reveals the scale of what
some have called Beijing's escalating soft power "charm offensive" to secure
political and economic clout on the continent.
The Chinese government releases very little information on its foreign aid
activities, which remain state secrets. In one of the most ambitious
attempts to date to chip away at this secrecy, US researchers have launched
the <
http://china.aiddata.org/> largest public database of Chinese
development finance in Africa, detailing almost 1,700 projects in 50
countries between 2000 and 2011.
China's financial commitments are significantly larger than previous
estimates of the country's development finance, though still less than the
estimated $90bn the US committed over that period. Researchers at
<
http://www.wm.edu/offices/itpir/aiddata/?svr=web> AidData, at the College
of William and Mary, have spent 18 months compiling and encoding thousands
of media reports to construct the database, and hope users will contribute
further detail on the projects.
The data, which challenges what has for years been the dominant story –
Beijing's unrelenting quest for natural resources – is likely to fuel
ongoing debate over China's motives in Africa.
There are few mining projects in the database and, while transport, storage
and energy initiatives account for some of the largest sums, the data also
reveals how China has put hundreds of millions of dollars towards health,
education and cultural projects.
AidData's database can be used to test some of the hypotheses – and
challenge some of the misconceptions – about China's motivations
In Liberia, China has put millions towards the installation of solar traffic
lights in Monrovia and financed a malaria prevention centre. In Mozambique,
China's projects include a National School for Visual Arts in Maputo. In
Algeria, construction has begun on a multimillion dollar 1,400-seat opera
house in the Ouled Fayet suburbs of western Algiers.
The view from Beijing
*
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/china-critics-aid-
package-africa> Tania Branigan on domestic disquiet at China's generosity
China has also sent thousands of doctors and teachers to work in Africa,
welcomed many more students to learn in China or in Chinese language classes
abroad and rolled out a continent-wide network of sports stadiums and
concert halls.
"The dominant narrative has been one of China's insatiable desire for
resources. But in fact this database suggests there may be many more things
going on," said <
http://www.cgdev.org/expert/vijaya-ramachandran> Vijaya
Ramachandran, senior fellow at the Washington DC-based thinktank Centre for
Global Development and co-author of a
<
http://www.cgdev.org/publication/chinas-development-finance-africa-media-ba
sed-approach-data-collection> report on the AidData project.
Only a fraction of the database's projects (totalling $16bn) would count as
<
http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/officialdevelopmentassistancedefinitionandcov
erage.htm> official development assistance under the rules set by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Ramachandran,
however, insists China is still playing an important role in closing funding
gaps in Africa. "China is a major emerging player in development finance and
we need to get a handle on what it is doing," she said.
While the scale of Chinese involvement in Africa has grown substantially
since 2000, its attempts to secure influence on the continent are nothing
new
While aid from OECD countries stagnates or shrinks under the pressure of
budgets and an increasingly sceptical public, a host of new emerging donors
– including Brazil, Venezuela, and Iran – are expanding their work in other
developing countries. These countries have largely resisted calls to
disclose data or abide by international aid transparency standards. This
lack of information has fuelled wild speculation over what the donors are
doing – and why.
The appeal of Chinese aid to African leaders
In this excerpt from
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/video/2012/dec/17/madam-presid
ent-malawi-joyce-banda-video> Madam President, Malawi's Joyce Banda explains
why African countries often prefer to deal with China than with Western
donors
Produced and directed by Nick and Marc Francis
While some insist the bottom line is China's thirst for natural resources,
others argue Beijing's development projects on the continent – from
infrastructure to debt relief to providing medical support – are also part
of a public diplomacy strategy to build up goodwill and international
support for the future.
New Chinese development projects are often announced during high-level
visits from state officials, although many never make it past the ceremonial
pledges. Researchers found evidence that almost 1,000 projects totalling
$48.6bn, are under way or complete. The rest either remain in the pipeline
or will never happen.
Many of the cultural and sporting projects across the continent are probably
"upfront sweeteners" to win government favour, a "downpayment" for future
commercial deals, suggests <
http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff30738.php>
Stephen Chan, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in
London.
But Chan rejects the idea that China has a master strategy in Africa. "There
are 54 countries in Africa. You're off your head if you think there's one
single agenda."
<
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/faculty-profiles/deborah-br
%C3%A4utigam-phd> Deborah Bräutigam, head of the international development
programme at Johns Hopkins University, said suggestions that China's aid to
Africa was all about natural resources were "widespread misconceptions".
"There are a lot of reasons countries give aid and China is no different,"
she said.
The Eight Principles of Chinese aid
In 1964, the Chinese government declared the
<
http://english.gov.cn/official/2011-04/21/content_1849913_10.htm> Eight
Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance to Other Countries,
which still inform development policy today:
1. Equality and mutual benefit form the basis of Chinese aid
2. China respects sovereignty, never attaches conditions or asks for
privileges
3. China helps lighten the burden with interest-free or low-interest loans
and by extending repayment terms when necessary
4. The purpose of aid is to help countries become self-reliant
5. Projects that require less investment but yield quicker results are
favoured
6. China provides quality equipment and materials manufactured in China at
international market prices
7. China will help recipient countries master the techniques of any
technical assistance
8. Chinese experts will have the same standard of living as those of the
recipient country and are not allowed to make special demands
Chinese education and training programmes, for example, target students from
across the continent. "These are all about diplomacy, about soft power ...
like the Alliance Française and the British Council ... all about presenting
China as an important global player. All the big countries do this," she
added.
Other programmes can be linked to China's trade agenda. Chinese medical
teams have worked in Africa since 1963, but recently their objective has
expanded to include promotion of China's pharmaceuticals such as
antimalarials, according to
<
http://www.cfr.org/experts/china-china-health-and-disease/yanzhong-huang/b1
1654> Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on
Foreign Relations. He said a combination of economic interests and the need
to expand its political influence and improve its international image was
driving Chinese health aid in Africa.
Beijing has also sought to improve its image on the continent by financing
the rapid expansion of Chinese media outlets across the continent to counter
negative images of China and Africa with upbeat stories. This is an explicit
part of China's official
<
http://www.cfr.org/china/chinas-african-policy-2006/p11933> Africa policy,
released in 2006, which encourages exchange and co-operation between African
and Chinese media to "enhance mutual understanding and enable objective and
balanced media coverage of each other".
The database includes Chinese projects to train journalists in Angola and
Zimbabwe, as well as an exchange programme for journalists in China and
Ghana.
It contains records of Chinese-backed projects in all but the four African
states that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan: Burkina Faso, the
Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe and Swaziland.
But last year
<
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/joseph-nye> Joseph
Nye, the Harvard professor who coined the term "soft power", said China
would see little return on its investments until it relaxed its control over
information.
"Great powers try to use culture and narrative to create soft power that
promotes their national interests, but it's not an easy sell when the
message is inconsistent with their domestic realities ... in an information
age in which credibility is the scarcest resource, the best propaganda is
not propaganda," he
<
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304451104577389923098678842.h
tml> wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "China is clamping down on the
internet and jailing human rights lawyers, once again torpedoing its
soft-power campaign."
Case studies
Many of the projects listed in AidData's database defy expectations. The
Guardian examined four:
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/china-algeria-oper
a-house>
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/china-algeria-oper
a-house> The $40 million opera house on the outskirts of Algeria's capital
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/ghana-china-gyms-s
tadiums>
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/ghana-china-gyms-s
tadiums> Olympic pool with sun loungers and 'Southern Fried Chicken' in
Ghana
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/china-aid-build-ho
spital-zambia>
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/china-aid-build-ho
spital-zambia> The China-Zambia Friendship Hospital in Lusaka
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/africa-future-lead
ers-china-aid-programme>
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/29/africa-future-lead
ers-china-aid-programme> Thousands of African students and civil servants in
China on training programmes
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Received on Thu May 02 2013 - 16:15:45 EDT
