China’s influence among African nations spurs concerns

Beijing —- When China broke ground on a $120 million headquarters for the African Union, the chief organization of African nations, this month, its officials offered a familiar string of rhetoric. Wu Bangguo, one of China’s top leaders, called the gift “another example of the growing friendship between China and Africa.”

The sleek, glass-and-steel building —- complete with a hall for 2,550 delegates —- will offer a concrete symbol of rapidly warming ties between China and Africa. China’s investment in Africa has surged in recent years and trade between China and Africa will reach $100 billion this year, surpassing the United States for the first time, Chinese experts say.

Beijing’s motivations, however, are less clear. China has characterized the burgeoning relationship as benevolent, spurring African development and sating Chinese demand for energy and raw materials.

But China’s spending spree is also redrawing political alliances, and some analysts fear the United States is losing influence in Africa.

In July, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “China’s full-court press to establish influence and connections in Africa and Latin America may be seismic in its future implications for the United States.”

Other experts worry that China’s trade is undermining international efforts to promote political change in Africa. Activists argue that, for example, China’s investments in Sudan —- where China has financed close to $1.3 billion of infrastructure projects in recent years —- have weakened global efforts to enforce peace in the restive Darfur region, where at least 200,000 people have died and nearly 2 million have been displaced.

While China “looks at Africa strategically as a continent that has resources that it needs to drive its economy forward,” concern has grown in the United States and Europe that Beijing’s influence will have negative impacts, said Wenran Jiang, a political economist at the University of Alberta.

“There are some people who argue that China has an evil design in terms of geostrategic gains,” Jiang said.

China’s growing presence is on display throughout Africa. Between 2001 and 2007, China’s trade with the continent grew from $11 billion to $73 billion annually while Beijing’s aid to African states roughly doubled.

In 2006, which Beijing dubbed the “Year of Africa,” Chinese companies spent more than $7 billion in the continent. Last year they invested an additional $4.5 billion on projects to build railroad lines, roads, hydroelectric plants and other operations, according to an August report by the World Bank.

The money has funded major initiatives in more than 35 nations and “is on a scale large enough to make a contribution toward meeting Africa’s vast infrastructure needs,” the report stated. But concerns persist that China’s basic tenet of noninterference in the affairs of foreign governments has undermined efforts to stamp out corruption and end bloodshed.

Chinese firms face no restrictions from Beijing and have taken advantage of the lack of competition. Chinese companies have financed more than a billion dollars of infrastructure projects in Sudan. They are also Sudan’s biggest buyer of oil and sell weapons to its government. Last year Beijing gave Sudan a $13 million interest-free loan to build a presidential palace.

But activists argue that the investment has weakened attempts by nations to force Sudan’s leaders to end fighting in Darfur.

International organizations such as the World Bank have expressed concerns that China’s no-strings-attached lending has weakened efforts to link aid to conditions such as fighting corruption.

“The biggest issue right now is whether China is going to be an obstacle to the kinds of political transformations that the United States would like to see take place [in Africa] to greater stability, greater democratization and greater openness in societies,” said Bates Gill, a China scholar who directs the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“The Chinese are very proud to say that they open up their aid without strings attached, but that could be a problem.”

For their part, Western companies worry that Beijing’s influence may help Chinese firms win contracts.

The New York-based U.S. Council on Foreign Relations found in a 2006 report that Chinese “soft loans” and other incentives “bolster its competitive advantage” in acquiring natural resources.

U.S. and European firms developed promising African oil fields and mineral deposits many years ago and control the most lucrative areas. But many African leaders are grateful for China’s growing role and may be swayed to favor Chinese firms in the future, said Chris Alden, a director at the South African Institute of International Affairs. “Right now, the best natural resources are still in Western hands, but that can change, and maybe we’re seeing the beginning of that change,” he said.

Craig Simons’ e-mail address is csimonscoxnews.com.