AU PARTNERSHIPS 47
China in the driving seat
China’s non-interference policy has been valuable, but Africa needs to ensure all its citizens benefi t from the relationship, writes Dr Sharon T Freeman
T China
Total area: 9.597 million sq km Area ranking in world terms: 4 Population: 1.34 billion (July 2011 est) Exports: $1.506 trillion (2010 est) Imports: $1.307 trillion (2010 est) Source: CIA World Factbook
he African Union (AU) and China appreciate each other. It is a relationship that is evolving, and growing more meaningful
and multifaceted over time. During the initial stage – when all
African leaders were invited to attend the fi rst Forum on Cooperation between China and Africa (FOCAC) in Beijing in 2000 – former President of Botswana Festus Mogae noted that there had been no pre-trip strategy sessions orchestrated by the AU to help African leaders prepare. The African leaders simply showed up, and the Chinese rolled out their Africa strategy. Eleven years later, with FOCACs occurring every three years, neither the AU nor any of the African countries have, thus far, rolled out their own China strategies.
China is fi rmly in the driver’s seat
and, so far, where it is taking the relationship with Africa is understood, accepted and appreciated by African leaders and by the AU. The FOCAC provides a clear and
transparent mechanism for China’s ever-increasing involvement in Africa. The inking of multibillion-dollar schemes at the FOCAC summits all go in one direction – from Beijing to various African states – while African resources inevitably fl ow in the opposite direction. The AU is the successor body to
the Organization of African Unity (OAU), whose post-war mandate was steeped in the anti-colonialism prevalent in the mid-Cold War era. By contrast, the Chinese Communist Party’s position of non-interference in African politics – the paramount prism through which Sino-African relations are conducted – distinctly lacks the colonial baggage that still taints European-African relations. It follows that China’s style of
engagement with Africa, which follows fi ve basic principles of peaceful coexistence and refrains from
INVEST IN AFRICA 2011
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