By Olalekan A. Babatunde
At more than any other times in its development history has Africa got the need to integrate more with the People’s Republic of China for its Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI). The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is rampaging through the globe is taking its tollon the economic and financial foundations of most countries. Africa will be worst hit at the end of the pandemic, as evidenced by several sources including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank forecasts. Instead of the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic drawing nations together, it is putting them apart. Indeed, when nations are preoccupied with their own. It is only China that remembered Africa with materials: medical and technical support to deal with the scourge. This help underscores the need for the continent to embrace China’s epic BRI more than ever before.
BRI is one of the Chinese’ “opening up and reform” policies that President Xi Jinping launched in 2013 to unleash monumental economic, investment and infrastructure development around the world. According to Xi, BRI is designed primarily to open windows of friendly engagement and cooperation through win-win cooperation and people-to-people connectivity. Yet one could posit that it is another way China wants to integrate more with and bolster its influence in the world. But which of the buoyant nations would desire not to?
Many countries including the Europeans and South Americans have signed up to the initiative. According to a new Refinitv report of 9 January 2020, there are nearly 3,000 BRI projects underway with a combined value of around US$4 trillion and involving 2,630 companies. In addition, China is looking to support new investment in the BRI by opening up more opportunities for non-Chinese companies. The time for Africa to deepen its relations with China and takes advantage of the opportunities is now as it is earnestly devising strategies to overcome the myriads of challenges that the pandemic has foisted. Thanks to the message by President Xi to the High-level Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation on 18 June 2020 where he said “the right approach to tackling global crises and realizing long-term development is through greater connectivity, openness and inclusiveness. This is where Belt and Road international cooperation can make a big difference.”
The model can be succinctly described as the 21st Century’s ancient Silk Roadthat the Chinese created and hugely exploited to trade along vast and long winding roads and seas with the Afro-Euroasiain articles which included porcelain, silk, silver and other wares. Near and far distant nations such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Italy, Spain, Middle Eastern empires and east Africa were engaged in the long-distance trade.Strong evidence from this rich history suggests that the ancient Chinese prospered under various emperors cum dynasties. They built the solid foundation for the modern China. Explorers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta as well as the discovered routes and wrecked ships attested to the feat. Indeed, China is regarded today as “the world’s manufacturing hub” as one is swayed to say we are indeed living the Chinese world, as there would hardly a home, a person or an organization without one or more Made in China products or services. As Nikky Haley, the former US Representative at the UN Security Council described it in her treatise in www.foreignaffairs.com of 18 July 2019, “the most important development of the last two decades has been the rise of China as a great economic and military power.”
Therefore, the central notion of BRI’s policy connects with African immediate needs and concerns in trade, infrastructure, financial, and people-to-people connectivity. Though some African countries have already signed up to it to scale up what China had begun in their communities while others are yet to. Africa is hungry for investment and development infrastructure in which the trillion-dollar development tool has encapsulatedin design and China is ready to offer.That is, there is a general decay in infrastructure, low-level trade, and economicas well as technological activities the continent-wide.Therefore, it is crucially important for Africa to take the offer very seriously. A number of reasons can be deduced from this assertion.
First, China has moved from 7th economy a few years back to be the current world’s 2nd largest economy after replacing Japan. Even amid its trade war with the United States, China’s Gross Domestic Product is 6.2% towering above the rest of the world.It makes big sense for Africa to strengthen partnership with such source of power.
Secondly, the existing order has not been fair to Africa and thereby created constraints for its progress. Since the establishment of the United Nations and its agencies, Bretton wood Institutions, and the end of the Cold War, and of course the ensued globalization, the “underdeveloped” countries have been promised extraordinary supports with a range of development agenda. But many decades after, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer in a syndrome of effects. Poverty, illiteracy, diseases, unemployment, and human abuses are a few effects of the unfulfilled promises. Debts, unequal trade balances cum agreements, inconsideration in global decisions on matters that concern Africans are part of what alienates the region. The resultant challenges are fragment of what is fuelling conflict and criminal violence, terrorism, trafficking, ecological and climate adversities and a host of other misfortunes in the continent. Now isthe time of African lives matter.
Thirdly, African landscape is changing with social and physical infrastructure such as railways, roads, bridges, dams, telecommunication outfits, etc. The BRI as evidenced in some countries like Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Djibouti is indicative of the fact that if embraced and accelerated, it would engender relevant, efficient and effective investment-induced growth and development the citizens are yearning for.For example, the Kenya’s standard-gauge railway has drastically reduced the journey between Nairobi and Mombasa Port from 12 to 4 hours and thereby creating opportunities and transforming lives. The Tanzania-Zambia railway constructed in 1976 is receiving some impetus with BRI, and with new ports, they are facilitating cross-border movements of persons, goods and services in that region. Also, the modernization of Djibouti to the extent that its port and rail-line connecting Ethiopia is opening up the eastern African trade. Employment opportunities and connectivity are being created. Ethiopian companies have started exporting quality-manufactured goods to Europe and US. Experts are globally touting the East Africa as the rising region economically and industrially.
Thirdly, employment is being generated more than ever before as youth are involved in a wide range of business, manufacturing and servicingsectors. Nevertheless, it is commonsensical to say that African imports particularly from China contributed to the collapse and loss of jobs in Africa like the Nigerian textile industry. But on the other hand, and to a greater extent, it has created more employment opportunities for its teeming youth in the telecommunicationsand construction sectors.For instance, each visit to the Nigeria’sComputer Village in LagosIkejaor GSM Villagein Abuja elicits the question of where was this critical mass of buyers, sellers, engineers and operators prior to the Made in Chinaand BRI in Africa?It is commonplace to sight potential traders and investors on weekday basis queuing up for travel permissions to China for trade and other business opportunities.Although Africa should also be smart with the BRI throughits extension of knowledge, skills, wealth and experience. Though it is unfortunate that almost sixty years of independence of most African states, the era of engaging expatriates, for instance, in constructing roads and bridges is not over. But once the expertise and commitment are learned over time, African countries can comfortably stand on their own as designed in BRI template.
Fourthly, BRI is a rational policy. The rise of China with its rapid global economic and industrial growth in the midst of the globalization phenomenon has given us reasons to look inward and draw key conclusions. China is the major trade partner of most countries in the world. Besides, China is a dependable ally and has proved itself to be more stable in its foreign policies. Its desires to connect more with the world arejust like any other high-flying countries.Of course, which of the developed countries is not driven by capitalism or profit? But in the case of China, its developmentconcern and desire for a balanced world could be observed even at the global engahgements with institutions such as the United Nations and its recent support to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the wake of the covid-19 outbreak and global spread. China contributes troops and money to global peacekeeping force to conflict zones in which many have been in Africa.
The extension of BRI to Africa is part of encouraging the continent to re-energize its development strategies and succeed. BRI is assisting poor countries to develop and better their society. If China could achieve development, Africa can do ittoo. It can be copied and reproduced.Even quite a number of Western and Eastern European countries including South American nations have signed up to the initiative. Italy, Spain and Peru are examples. Its 5G technology is already operational United Kingdom and other parts of Western Europe.
In addition, with BRI, China is proving to be a different kind of superpower amid what I can describe as a new scramble for Africa. Russia, India and Turkey have also established their presence in the continent. Like India and Lebanon, China is ubiquitous in the region and for decades, it has been a consistent and dependable ally.It is reported that China has given more loans to poor countries than the World Bank. In countries such as Nigeria and Zambia, amounts from China of over US$100 million per year have been common. In Zambia, for instance, this support has represented 1–1½ percent of its GDP.
Sixth, China and Africa share a lot in common and therefore understand how it feels like in overcoming development challenges. From historical perspective, both regions have been attacked and destroyed by external forces. For example, Anglo-French and Japanese invasion in the 17th and 18th Centuries destroyed Chinese civilizations while Africa was colonized. Similarly, the world cannot forget the attacks on China in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
Nevertheless, some ofthe existing criticisms of BRI coming from some foreign and African perspectivescannot be thrown away: BRI is a debt trap diplomacy, lacks transparency, promoting poor standard infrastructures, among others. From an African assessment, these views may be frank assessment of the initiative considering the ranging past cases of Chinese violations of human rights in Africa such as environmental pollution, dehumanization of workers, trafficking and the current controversy as regards the China-Zambia relations and the alleged ways Black Africans were maltreated during the enforcement of anti-coronavirus measures in Guangzhou and the diplomatic rows that ensued between Africa and China.
One cannot but ask this question: which of the western nations and institutions have not dealt with Africa like that since its partition, conquest, colonial and post-colonial periods in the continent? This kind of western paternalismhas driven the pre-existing superpowers and corporations to neck-deep in exploiting Africa’sresources and make it debt-dependent. Such politics is likewise behind the 5G-technologythat China debuted before any country while drawing controversies from its opposition. But given the persistent condemnationsof BRI including advocaciesfor better business regime at multi-lateral cooperation forums in both regions as well as statements of commitment from the Chinese authorities, one could not but be confident that China would be transparent and accountable in the execution of BRI in Africa. The role of African civil society and other advocacy groups is critical here in order to ensure that their peopleare treated fairly and carryout due diligence on BRI projects.
In conclusion therefore, one can confidently say that the BRI offered by China represent an important opportunity that Africa can take advantage of, particularly as it is rolling out economic recovery plans in anticipation of post covid-19 pandemic. BRI could heal Africa’s wounds. Evidence abounds of the development impact of the economic and aid support that China has provided in recent years.African leaders should scale up their engagement with the China’s BRI to relieve the plight of their people living in poverty and untold hardship.
Olalekan A. Babatunde, PhDis a Research Fellow, Peacebuilding/Evidence Practitioner at the Nigeria’s Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja.He writes on China’s issues from an African perspective. @olaaustinebabs
