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African Perspectives on China–Africa Links
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2009
Abstract
Scholars and the international media often allude to a putative “African view” of Africa–China links, constructed from anecdotal evidence. Using random sample and university-based surveys, we elaborate the first empirically based study of what Africans think of their relationships with China. We reach three conclusions. First, African views are not nearly as negative as Western media make out, but are variegated and complex. Second, the survey results are at variance with the dominant Western media representation that only African ruling elites are positive about these links. Third, we find that the dominant variation in African perspectives is by country, compared with variations such as age, education and gender. The differences among countries in attitudes towards China are primarily a function of the extent to which national politicians have elected to raise the “Chinese problem” and, secondarily, the extent of Western media influence in African states.
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References
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23 In regression analysis, independent variables are chosen because they may explain in part a dependent variable, by determining the proportion of variance in the dependent variable caused by each independent variable. E.g. regression analyses in studies of racial discrimination use variables such as race, gender, education, age, skill and output levels to explain employee salary differences by race. See e.g.“Study: New York Hospital RNs report increased challenges, lack of adequate training,” press release, http://www.albany.edu/news/release_2699.shtml (higher wages of white nurses not accounted for by years worked as RN).
24 As all variables had two or more categories, multinomial logistic regression was used.
25 The questions were whether China's policies in Africa benefit the continent, China's rise benefits Africa, and how China's policies in Africa compare with those of Western states.
26 In 2007, in purchasing power parity terms, $9,700 versus $5,400. CIA, World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html.
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52 “Stop defending Chinese investors, says opposition leader,” Times of Zambia, 1 November 2007.
53 Gershom Ndhlovu, “‘Cobra’ Sata spits venom,” 30 November 2007, http://gndhlovu.blogspot.com/2007/11/cobra-sata-spits-venom.html.
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58 “Zambian acting president urges ruling MMD party members to be honest to voters,” Zambia Daily Mail, 11 September 2008; “Sata rules out pact,” New Times (Uganda), 18 September 2008. A PF leader has stated that he “could not categorically say whether the PF was still receiving financial support from Taiwan.” “PF warns KK over his support for Banda,” Post, 7 October 2008.
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61 “We'll continue booing Sata – UNZA students,” Post (Zambia), 14 December 2005.
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65 Barry Sautman and Yoon Jung Park, “Southern Africa's ‘dragon slayers’: political oppositions and anti-Chinese agitation,” paper in progress.
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84 Wene Owino, “Wanted: a magician for the Botswana opposition,” 16 April 2008, http://politics.nationmedia.com/Blog/default.asp?Display=230.
85 China also has non-oil investments, e.g. hydro-electric facilities and textile plants. Lee, Henry and Shalmon, Dan, Searching for Oil: China's Oil Initiatives in the Middle East (Cambridge: Belfer Center, 2007), p. 24Google Scholar. The United Arab Emirates has $7 billion invested in Sudan, but no political problems have been raised about its role. “UAE investment in Sudan touch $7 billion: Sudanese president,” The Emirates, 12 March 2008.
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87 International Crisis Group, “China's thirst for oil,” Report No. 153, 9 June 2008.
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93 Downs, Erica, China (Washington: Brookings 2006), p. 31Google Scholar. Similarly, Nigeria accounts for 11% of US crude imports. “US warns of Al-Qaeda attacks,” This Day (Nigeria), 7 September 2007.
94 “China's overseas investments in oil and gas production,” report to the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission (Washington: Euro/Asia Group, 2006), p. 3. Three US oil companies, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillips, alone produce ten times the volume of equity oil that China does. US Department of Energy, “Energy Policy Act of 2005, sec. 1837: national security review of international energy requirements” (Washington: DOE, 2006), p. 28.
95 Darren Taylor, “Concerns mount about Chinese oil interests in Africa,” VOANews, 3 May 2007, www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Concerns-=Mount-about-Chinese-Oil-Interersts-in–Africa.cfm; Freeman, Nicholas, The Dragon on the Nile: China's Pursuit of Energy Security in Sudan (Annapolis: US Naval Academy 2006), p. 79Google Scholar. CNPC reported that 90% of its 2003 equity oil production was sold on the international market. With the Grain or Against the Grain: Energy Security and Chinese Foreign Policy in the Hu Jintao Era (Washington: Brookings, 2006), p. 28.
96 Downs, Erica, “The fact and fiction of Sino-African energy relations,” China Security, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2007), pp. 42–68Google Scholar. See also Atlantic Council and China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, “US–China energy security cooperation dialogue,” 2006, p. 6 (Chinese firms that invest in Sudan and elsewhere say “a very small percentage of the oil they produce overseas is transported back to China”), http://www.acus.org/docs/070612-US_China_Energy_Security_Cooperation_Dialogue_Report.pdf.
97 Houser, Trevor, “The roots of Chinese oil investment abroad,” Asia Policy, No. 5 (2008), pp. 141–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar. IMF figures for 2006 show that some 50% of Sudan's oil exports went to Japan. Large, Daniel, “China and the contradictions of non-interference in Sudan,” Review of African Political Economy, No. 115 (2008), pp. 93–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Official 2006 trade statistics show “Sudan shipped 14,000 bbl/d of its crude exports to Japan, and China's import of Sudanese crude exports averaged only 99,000 bbl/d.” “Sudan: whose oil?” Fatal Transactions, 2008, p. 25, www.su-dan.org/home.htm. Unaware that Japan is the largest buyer of Sudan oil, a prominent Japanese weekly referring to China and Sudan, rhetorically queried, “What does one call it when an economic powerhouse buys the lion's share of a backwater's exports? How about ‘virtual economic domination?’” “Beijing pursues ‘virtual domination’ in Africa,” Nikkei Weekly, 29 September 2008.
98 Interview, Abd Almoniem Abuedries Ali, , Al-Ahbdath journalist, Khartoum, 29 November 2008Google Scholar. Politically, India is more closely aligned with Sudan than is China. See Daniel Large, “Sudan's foreign relations with Asia: China and the politics of ‘looking east’,” Institute of Security Studies Paper 158 (2008), p. 5.
99 William Hartung, “Deadly traffic: China's arms trade with the Sudan,” New America Foundation, August 2008, http://www.newamerica.net/files/080606PBChinaArmsTrade.pdf; “China denies report it increased small-arms sales to Sudan as Darfur violence escalated,” Associated Press, 14 March 2008.
100 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute arms transfer database, http://armstrade.sipri.org.
101 “It is not objective to one-sidedly accuse China of arms sales to Sudan,” Xinhua, 8 March 2008. China helped develop the industry during the 1980s.
102 Large, “China and the contradictions of non-interference in Sudan,” p. 101. The Chinese government does not however necessarily regard Darfur rebel groups as anti-China. Ben Blanchard, , “China's role in Sudan ‘distorted’ by the media,” Mail & Guardian (South Africa), 29 June 2008Google Scholar.
103 See Liu Guijin, “BBC misrepresents China's relations with Sudan with ulterior motives,” Xinhua, 19 July 2008. See also Guijin, Liu, “No logic in blaming China for Darfu,” China Daily, 6 May 2008Google Scholar; Marklund, Klas and Odqvist, Karin, Perspectives on Africa Today: a Swedish–Chinese–African Dialogue (Uppsala: Institute for Security & Development Policy, 2008), p. 17Google Scholar.
104 Gwen Thompkins, “Chinese influence in Sudan is subtle, complicated,” National Public Radio (US), 29 July 2008. In other authoritarian African states, opposition parties have attacked government deals with China. Halff, Antoine, “The panda menace,” National Interest (July 2007), pp. 35–41 (Angola)Google Scholar; Amosu, Akwe, “China in Africa: it's (still) the governance, stupid,” Foreign Policy in Focus, 9 March 2007, pp. 2–3 (DRC)Google Scholar.
105 Ali Abdalla Ali, , “EU, China and Africa: the Sudanese experience,” Sudan Tribune, 10 July 2007Google Scholar; “Workshop on foreign existence calls for foreign labor laws,” Khartoum Monitor, 3 April 2008, in BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 4 April 2008; “Chinese commodities imperil craftsmen,” Al-Ra'y al-Amm, 27 April 2007, in BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 28 April 2007.
106 “China to finance development projects in south Sudan,” Sudan Tribune, 1 September 2007; James Dak, “China to increase investment in southern Sudan: diplomat,” Sudan Tribune, 25 September 2008.
107 “Sudan opposition parties and SPLM urge quick resolution to Darfur crisis,” Sudan Tribune, 15 July 2008; “Sudan's opposition leader presents national reconciliation initiative,” Xinhua, 2 June 2008.
108 “Sudan media study summary,” Concordia University Media Relations, 8 September 2006, http://mediarelations.concordia.ca/pressreleases/archives/2006/09/sudan_media_study_summary.php.
109 Chege, Michael, “Economic relations between Kenya and China, 1963–2007,” in Cooke, Jennifer (ed.), US and Chinese Engagement in Africa: Prospects for Improving US-China-Africa Cooperation (Washington, DC: Center of Strategic and International Studies 2008), pp. 12–32Google Scholar; see Alaba Ogunsanwo, “A tale of two giants: Nigeria and China,” in Ampiah and Naidu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? pp. 192–207.
110 Elsewhere in Zambia, Chris Burke found that “the overwhelming majority of people interviewed have very favourable perceptions of China, simply because they can now buy a broader range of affordable consumer goods” and Muna Ndulo concluded that “it is clear that the reaction of Zambians to Chinese investments is complex, but on the whole, welcom[ing].” Burke, Chris et al. , China's Engagement of Africa: Preliminary Scoping of African Case Studies (Stellenbosch: Centre for Chinese Studies, 2007), p. 158Google Scholar; Ndulo, “Chinese investments in Africa: a case study of Zambia,” in Ampiah and Naidu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? pp. 138–51.
111 Trofimov, Yaroslav, “In Africa, China's expansion begins to stir resentment,” Wall Street Journal, 2 February 2007Google Scholar.
112 Building Bridges: China's Growing Role as Infrastructure Financier (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008).
113 Ralph M. Wrobel, “China's role on the international markets for natural resources: implication for sustainability and growth in less developed countries,” paper presented at the Congress of Political Economists International annual meeting, 12–19 July 2008, New Delhi, p. 11.
114 Geda, Alemayehu and Meskel, Atnafu, “China and India's growth surge: is it a curse or blessing for Africa? The case of manufactured exports,” African Development Review, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2008), pp. 247–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
115 Loxley, John and Sackey, Harry, “Aid effectiveness in Africa,” African Development Review, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2008), pp. 163–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
116 A group of Africans involved in assessing China–African links have averred that a non-interference policy obviates “the sense of condescension and dictation that frustrates many Africans in their dealings with the West.” Marklund and Odqvist, Perspectives on Africa Today, p. 15.
117 See Gu Jing, , “Global governance and developing countries: the implications of the rise of China,” World Development, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2008), pp. 274–92Google Scholar; Long Yongtu, “United States goes against WTO rules by subsidizing agriculture,” Wen wei po (Hong Kong), 31 July 2008, in BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 31 July 2008.
118 “Build capacity for growth, say African leaders as World Economic Forum on Africa opens,” 14 July 2007, http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/11874; Marklund and Odqvist, Perspectives on Africa Today, p. 9.
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