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Relations between China and Africa are at the heart of the concerns and analyzes of many authors and actors: journalists, geopoliticians, economists, consultants, diplomats and specialists in strategy issues. However, to understand this growing dynamism in the relations between the Middle Kingdom and the African continent, it is necessary to go out of the event and to register in the long term. Between the sentimental breakthrough of the 1960s and 1970s, China's relative disinterest in the 1980s with the policies of reform and openness, and China's comeback in the early 2000s as part of the "Going Global Strategy "is a whole piece of the history of Sino-African relations, from the Bandung Conference to the last China-Africa Forum in Johannesburg, which is being written.
Bandung 1955: a China's first strong signal
China began to show support for the African continent from the Bandung Conference (1955) which focused on the non-aligned movement's baptismal font. This support of the Middle Kingdom will result in vast programs of donations and help to his "brother of the South". Although the two continents are far apart, the main thing for the Chinese was to seek what unites them to the people of Africa. This Chinese aid was part of an international opposition between the two blocs, communist and capitalist, under the leadership of the USSR and the United States.
The big turn with Deng Xiaoping …
Thus, it is with the arrival of Deng Xiaoping that a new orientation will be given to the Chinese help which will be based now more on a pragmatism focused on the mutual interests of both parties, both the recipient country and China. The goal for the new Chinese leaders is to highlight the happiness of the Chinese rather than pour into an ideological diplomatic policy conveying the greatness of China. Thus, for China "Africa is perceived as a market and access to the essential resources of energy and raw materials" (Beuret and Michel, 2008) .
… and continued with Zhao Ziyang
A new turning point in Sino-African relations will be noted with the arrival of so-called reforming Chinese leaders such as Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang who will share with African leaders during his African tour of 1982-1983 (Algeria, Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe) the new direction that will take the Chinese support in Africa.
Thus, four principles are going henceforth underpinning "Chinese cooperation" in Africa: "Equality, mutual benefit, diversification in forms and mutual development" which announced a slight change with the Zhou EnLai position and put more emphasis on mutual benefits. It is a time when there was "less Africa" in the political priorities of China.
Tien An Men: an important moment
The events of Tien An Men of 1989 will precipitate the return of China in Africa, as it faces isolation on the international scene. Thus, a new policy of seduction is engaged to attract African countries with their huge electoral potential to the United Nations Assembly in the Chinese fold as diplomatic support. In 1995, Jiang Zemin formally asked Chinese companies to go out (zou chu qu) to invest in other southern countries. The year before, to better articulate and manage aid, new players or institutions will be created with the existence of the ExIm Bank whose concessional loans will increase for the benefit of African countries.
Jiang Zemin in Africa in 1996: economic diplomacy is launched
In May 1996, Jiang Zemin visited the continent (Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Mali, Namibia, Zimbabwe) to propose a permanent and multilateral stabilization of relations Sino-Africa based on a five-point project: sincere friendship, treatment as equals, unity and cooperation, common development and approach to the future. It is in the 2000s that the Chinese offensive will be much more significant and aggressive in Africa with a decade that will be that of the consolidation and normalization of relations between the two parties, after that of the contact essentially "declarative "(Alden, 2007). Jiang Zemin's "Going Global" strategy in the Central Committee plenum marks China's real return to Africa (Zheng Qi) by encouraging Chinese companies to invest abroad and in Africa to consolidate South-South cooperation between China, which is "the largest developing country in the world", and the continent with "the largest number of developing countries."
* Ibrahima Niang is a research scientist Institute of African and Asiatic Studies in the Sahel and doctoral student in sociology at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.
** According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the volume of Sino-African trade relations, which was 10 billion in 2000, has increased tenfold in less than a decade to reach US $ 106.8 billion in 2008.
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