Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
By Gerald Mbanda
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his recent virtual meeting with Young African Leaders, made undiplomatic statements similar to those made by his predecessor in Donald Trump’s administration- Mike Pompeo. The subject as usual was on the unpopular US song of “Chinese debt trap.”
“If someone is coming along and saying I’m going to invest a lot of money in your country, but it’s a loan, so, that means you have a debt and you’re going to have to pay it back someday and if that is too great and you can’t pay it back, then I’m going to own the asset in question,” Blinken made the statement in a virtual discussion with the Alumni of the Young African Leaders Initiative.
Blinken probably expected that his statement would bias the young Africans who are the future leaders towards shunning cooperation with China and embrace US as the favorable partner for Africa. Infact, the statement was an insult to the African people for Blinken’s insinuation that Africans are too ignorant to know what is good or bad for them. This is characteristic of the ‘white saviors’ supremacist ideology that the west has used for centuries while dealing with Africa. When the white man reached Africa, he is said to be the one who discovered all the mountains, rivers and forests, as if the indigenous people they found were blind.
What Blinken and the US policy makers forget is that friendship and cooperation are not earned through lies and smear campaign; it is only earned through sincere mutual cooperation that bears tangible results which in turn strengthen the relationship. The US policy towards Africa has for centuries been characterized by forceful exploitation, coercion, dictatorship, double standards and setting conditional ties. In simple expression, the US assumed and still assumes to have a superior status and simply gives orders to the poor African states on what they should do rather than cooperating on a level playing field as equal partners.
The false allegations of “the Chinese debt trap” have been debunked for a long time but surprisingly the US administration keeps on recycling it. The fact that the US administration pretends to be sympathetic to African countries for being exploited by China speaks volumes. There is an African proverb which says that if someone is more sympathetic to a child than the mother, be careful because that person intends to eat the child. In the same vein, where does the US get the moral authority to be concerned that Africa is being exploited by China, when history proves otherwise?
Available figures indicate that China’s lending to Africa constitutes only 13% of the total Africa’s debt, while multilateral lenders make up 32% of Africa’s debt. The multilateral lenders to Africa, plus those that deal with individual countries at a bilateral level take the biggest percentage and are dominated by western countries and their financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
The question one can ask here is whether Africa is more indebted to China than the western countries. The answer is a big NO! Then why does the US try to create a storm in a tea cup by alleging that Africa is chocking with Chinese loans? The answer is clear. The US wants to spoil the excellent mutual cooperation that prevails between China and Africa! The US Secretary of State forgets one fundamental principle that actions speak louder than words.
Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, the friendship and cooperation between China and Africa grew stronger over the years. In 2009, China surpassed the US as Africa’s largest trading partner. When US woke up from a long busy slumber of making war in Iraq, it failed to accept losing its hegemony over Africa hence resorting to mudslinging China.
In 2019, total trade between China and Africa reached US$208.7 billion, 20 times that of 2000; while China’s direct investment in Africa reached US$49.1 billion, 100 times that of 2000. China has also delivered the much needed infrastructure development in Africa which includes; roads, bridges, railways and ports. The most recent is Kenya’s Lamu seaport that will facilitate movement of goods in the greater horn of Africa. The African Union Conference Centre is also an iconic infrastructure built by China. As mentioned earlier that actions speak louder than words, these achievements plus many more, are what makes African countries know who their true friends are.
The support provided by China to African countries during the current COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the virus, touched the hearts of many African people. China proved to be a close friend in need. China not only supported African countries but many others all over the world, the most recent being India. On the other hand, the US and other rich countries are hording COVID-19 vaccines stocking more than what they need at a time when the human race globally is faced with catastrophic risk.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres out of frustration recently cried out on social media that, “out of the 1.4billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered around the world, less than 2% have reached Africa.” Many developing countries condemned the action by the rich countries as “Vaccine apartheid.”
African countries are open to work with all countries of the world including US and China, but using undiplomatic means of tarnishing the image of China in Africa is in bleach of expected diplomatic protocol. Instead the backlash of US on China-Africa relations makes Africans defiant to the US way of dealing with Africa. Blinken must know that African countries know better what they want and how to get it without being biased.
Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa Cooperation.
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