Xavier Aurégan is a professor at the Catholic University of Lille, a specialist in China-Africa relations. In June he published China, an African power. Geopolitics of Sino-African relations (Armand Colin, 272 pages, 23.90 euros). While the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was being held in Beijing from 4 to 6 September, the specialist analyses the asymmetric relationship that has developed between China and the African continent.
In your opinion, the African continent has been a laboratory for China’s rise on the international scene. To what extent?
I use the term “laboratory” because China, under Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, tried out different methods of international intervention in Africa. In the 1960s, China first experimented with health diplomacy, sending medical missions, the first to Algeria, to Saïda, in 1962. [six mois après son indépendance]. It then tried agricultural cooperation by importing the state farm model, which failed due to lack of investment. Then, in terms of defence, Beijing provided support to African national liberation movements in Tanzania, Angola, Guinea, Niger, etc.
After Mao’s death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping simplified Chinese foreign policy. He opted for a more mercantile approach, launching small industries such as match factories. In the 1990s, following major reforms of the Chinese economy, the African continent became a laboratory for granting lines of finance to partner states, while large Chinese state-owned companies set out to conquer international markets. Once again, these methods were first tested in Africa.
How would you define these relationships today?
After the euphoria of the 2010s, which accompanied the deployment of Xi Jinping’s “new Silk Roads” project, China is facing a financial problem. It is reluctant to lend money to African states that are struggling to repay it because of their own difficulties, whether financial, post-Covid economic or security-related. Especially since certain projects, poorly thought out and not optimized, call into question its legitimacy.
For Chinese actors, both government and business, the key word has become “risk” and they are thinking twice before internationalizing, particularly in Africa. Moreover, Chinese direct investments in Africa remain low, which does not allow for a significant development of industrialization. Politically, there is no turning back, but economically, there is a certain caution.
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