China assistance to Africa *No strings attached

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The Chinese government has stated that it has no strings attached to its assistance to Africa but desires a sincere and mutually beneficial relationship with the continent.

By Edmund Smith-Asante, BEIJING

There are no strings attached to China’s assistance to Africa as is being alleged, the Deputy Director General of the African Affairs Department at China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Dai Bing has stated.

He said rather China seeks cooperation with Africa on equal partnership terms beneficial to both parties in her new plan of bilateral cooperation.

Mr. Dai who was addressing African journalists at a three-hour meeting on the cooperation between China and Africa last Tuesday, also refuted the assertion that China was seeking to re-colonise Africa or engage in neo-colonisation.

Stressing that China was not pursuing a unilateral interest in its relationship with Africa, he said “we have never imposed our visions and opinions on African countries because we have different experiences and environments.”

He described China-Africa relations as a relationship between brothers who shared a common destiny and the same basic values.

“We must be genuine in addressing the problems between China and Africa because we are friends, partners and brothers. Our relationship is between brothers and there is bound to be inevitable conflicts. Even couples fight from time to time,” Mr. Dai said.

He therefore, asked for sincerity, mutual cooperation and forgiveness to resolve differences, adding that both sides were pursuing equally beneficial and win-win cooperation.

“When President Xi Jinping paid his first state visit to Tanzania and the Republic of Congo in March 2013 he told Africa to be sincere and genuine. We should trust and help each other. We wholly support the development of Africa,” he said.

The deputy Director General said China was ready to share her experience with Africa in terms of the transfer of capital, technology and investments, while Africa could also share its market resources, labour market and natural resources.

Learning curve

Mr. Dai, however, admitted that there were challenges in China’s cooperation with Africa, which he said was because both parties were on a learning curve.

Expressing optimism that the challenges on both sides were surmountable, he said China, which had just entered its transformation and upgrading stage, for instance lacked the experience of transferring technology to Africa.

“Chinese companies are not doing a good job in Africa. That is not our intention – we lack experience,” he said.

Mr. Dai listed other challenges as the late start of projects due to stringent internal mechanisms in China, which slowed down the process of cooperation; the lack of international professionals and talent as well as people proficient in foreign languages.

He said even with high education Chinese people were not bi or trilingual, while the great distance between China and Africa made Chinese companies prefer to trade with Asian partners.

“You should help Chinese companies to solve the problems we are facing. We are on a learning curve,” he urged.

Africa’s challenges

Mr. Dai said with respect to foreign direct investment (FDI) Africa was also on a learning curve, adding that it was why African countries thought China was attaching certain strings to its cooperation, but that was not the case.

He indicated that Africa further lacked favourable policies and laws to protect foreign investments, which was why foreign businesses suffered whenever there were changes in government.

“We respect your system of governance but if you keep on changing leaders the projects cannot continue and the frequent changes impact our bilateral cooperation because upon a new mandate we have to start all over again and it hurts our bilateral cooperation,” he said.

Mr. Dai also blamed the lack of efficiency, high taxes and the poor development of rail transport and other infrastructure for the hiccups experienced in Africa’s cooperation with China.  

Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh

This story was written on April 12, 2017