NN42, June 2009
A Safari Towards Aid Effectiveness?
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC): What Lessons to Learn?
By Liu Haifang, Institute of West Asian and African Studies, CASS, Beijing
Email: haifang_l@163.comKeywords
China-Africa; FOCAC
Summary
This piece looks at China-Africa cooperation, looking forward to the 4th Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC), which is due to take place in November 2009.
The 4th meeting of Forum of China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) is due to take place later in 2009 in Egypt and already there has been much speculation about it. The most eager question being asked is what the Chinese government will say about the implementation of the ?eight steps? Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to his nearly 50 African counterparts in the 3rd FOCAC meeting, which was promoted from ministerial level into summit-level; it promised that all the projects would be implemented by the end of 2009. An associated question on the lips of keen China-watchers is this: in the aftermath of the ?eight steps?, what new pledge will come out from the next FOCAC meeting?
Rather than study how much impact this newly created mechanism has so far brought to general bilateral relationships, the urgency to measure China as a new donor in a quantitative way is becoming a focus of observation. This wrongly-targeted monitoring does not happen just because of existing external intensive attention to China?s engagement in Africa, especially during this world-wide crisis. As Kenneth King has pointed out, the tone that was reflected by the Chinese government in its statement of the Beijing Action Plan diverted itself from its usual orbit of promoting South-South Cooperation to presenting itself as a donor (King, 2009). This was perhaps not very smart especially given the large numbers of Chinese living below the poverty line. Chinese diplomats in each African country are now pressing ahead to finish all these FOCAC projects ? the completion of which affects the diplomats? performance evaluation ? but this is rather a tough task given the harsh situation in Africa. On the one hand these Chinese diplomats may feel it is too difficult to make sure their hosting countries? officials are cooperative enough to complete all these projects on time. On the other hand, African officials and diplomats resident in China complain that they lack real ownership in these projects, because they are all Chinese designed, carried out by Chinese, and often deviate from their original wishes of the Africans.[1]
In terms of aid effectiveness, just like traditional donors, China still has a long way to go; yet essentially, it has been a pursuit for at least 30 years since the Chinese government started to give up its former ideologically-orientated foreign policy. More precisely, the adjustment of China?s African policy in the last 3 decades has been rather a process of exploring a feasible way of continuing with South-South Cooperation instead of becoming a donor in the traditional sense. FOCAC has only existed for ten years but needs to be understood in the context of the efforts by China over the preceding three decades to step onto the world stage, as well as with its domestic reform process. FOCAC was originally more a platform for the Chinese government to promote relations with Africa, for political, economic and cultural reasons, rather than as a mechanism for commercial relationships, let alone narrowly on aid in its traditional meaning. But it is worth noting how FOCAC can be presented as an aid relationship.
China?s relationship with Africa has to balance Chinese economic demands with international demands concerning its responsibilities as a rising power; this is not easy. So it is understandable that the Chinese government sometimes shows more ambitions of its assistance to Africa as a ?responsible power?. The best thing China?s aid has brought cant be found in the exact amount of its financial help, but in the opportunities for the recipient countries to share knowledge and technology coming from a similar state which was almost in the same starting point with them 50 years ago or less. For the Chinese, the greatest benefit from these assistance projects is the precious overseas experiences which have so far greatly broadened the horizon of Chinese enterprises on their way to ?going global?.[2] Far from being a carefully preconceived geopolitical strategy, this is just one of the cooperative points with Africa that the Chinese so far have identified in a long process of ?crossing the river by groping the stones?.
How the Chinese government dynamically learns from its experience with development and how it objectively and calmly perceive itself on the world stage might be the most important factors for the coming meeting in Egypt. As for the deliveries to Africa via FOCAC, the mere implementation of quantitative promises per se is questionable, let alone the one-sided analysis. The key issue will be the quality of what China has offered to Africa.
Reference
King, K. (2009) China?s Education Cooperation with Africa: Meeting the FOCAC Targets? Africa Day Workshop, African Studies Programme, HKU, 25th May 2009.
[1] Interviews to Chinese diplomats in Africa, African officials and African diplomats in China, since January 2009 till May 2009 in some African countries and Beijing.
[2] ?Go global? as a goal for Chinese enterprises was raised in the early 1990s, and in 1995, the Chinese government started to make all the development aid projects, involving infrastructure, to be carried out by Chinese enterprises. Many a Chinese enterprises (private, and state-owned as well) goes to Africa through aid projects.
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