Op-Ed: US Policy on Chinese Influence in Africa
By Ambassador Donald T. Bliss (ret.), UNA-NCA Past President
In recent years, the US has increasingly viewed China as a dangerous adversary, a trend supported by presidential action, congressional rhetoric and public opinion polls. US-China relations are at a decades-long low point; some even argue that we are drifting towards a new “Cold War.”
Yet, the US relationship with the world’s most populous country and second largest economy is more complicated. As an adversary which challenges international norms, we are rightfully concerned about China’s deteriorating human rights record, its treatment of the Uyghurs and other Moslems in Xinjiang and the Buddhists in Tibet, its crackdown in Hong Kong, its threatening of Taiwan, it military buildup in the South China Sea, and its cybersecurity attacks. As a competitor, we have reason to regret that since its admission to the World Trade Organization, China does not play by the rules of international trade — it steals intellectual property, forces technology transfers, and dumps the products of subsidized state owned industries.
At the same time, however, the US and China are inextricably interconnected through an integrated supply chain, China’s holding of the US’s growing debt, and, most importantly, the essential role we each play in addressing global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, migration and nonstate terrorism.
During the Trump administration, the US became increasingly alarmed about China’s increasing influence in Africa. Since 2012, China has been Africa’s largest trading partner and its investments in Africa are by some measures 10 times the US, some two trillion dollars since 2005. China’s huge infrastructure projects are designed to knit together the continent under the AFRICA Continental Fee Trade Agreement and to link Africa to China through the Belt and Road Initiative. For example, Senegal has a $1.6 B construction loan, Djibouti a $1.1B loan, and 72% of Kenya’s debt is to China.
During the Trump Administration, the Chinese threat in Africa essentially became the focal point of US-Africa policy. As a practical matter, the US, with its growing debt and unmet domestic infrastructure needs, is not going to match China’s huge investment in Africa. Nor are we willing to engage in the corrupt practices and predatory lending terms that fuel Chinese investments. Moreover, since the US has achieved energy independence, we do not share China’s compelling need to extract Africa’s natural resources.
In any event, the health and economic impact of Covid-19 has changed the global dynamics in ways that augur for a new US-Africa policy written on a clean slate.
Even though there are legitimate concerns about China’s growing influence in Africa, the new Administration has the opportunity — indeed, the obligation — to reframe US-Africa policy so that it is not predominately based on combating Chinese involvement. Rather US policy should cultivate our special relationships and shared heritage with African countries, while, at the same time, recognizing the opportunity Africa presents for US-China collaboration on issues like climate change, health care, the terrorist threat, migration, and sustainable economic development.
The last thing we want is to drift back into the cold war mentality when the US and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars in places like Angola as Africa struggled with post colonialization. This is a history we do not want to repeat.
To many Africans, China has been perceived as a sympathetic nonaligned voice, which also has suffered from colonialism and successfully overcome economic development challenges, raising one billion people out of poverty. While it has completed dramatic port, rail, highway, and utility projects expeditiously, Chinese investment in Africa mostly benefits Chinese contractors, workers, products, and lending institutions. China has a reputation for efficiency because it is less constrained by anticorruption regulations and labor and environmental concerns than the US.
In recent years, Chinese investment has become more multi-purposed, addressing media, manufacturing, education, security, health and agriculture. It has established an enormous foothold in telecommunications. Chinese companies like Huawei, Transsion and ZTE are dominating Africa’s rapidly expanding ITC capacity, which presents serious security issues.
Importantly, China recognizes that there are 54 sovereign nations in Africa and each presents different political and economic circumstances. Although China deals with the continent through the Forum on China Africa Cooperation, it executes its policies bilaterally.
In contrast, US trade with Africa is declining, primarily due to US energy independence. We imported almost $100 billion in oil and gas in 2008, but ten years later it as only $17 billion. Since Covid-19, it has declined even further.
What should US policy be toward in Africa, taking into account China’s substantial presence there?
As the new Administration frames US- Africa policy, I suggest that it be guided by three fundamental principles: 1) US policy should not be aimed solely at China, but rather should reinforce the special relationships that the US has to African nations, 2) Working closely with the United Nations, the African Union, and other multilateral institutions, the US should encourage international cooperation and the sharing of responsibility in addressing global challenges facing Africans, and 3) US policy should recognize the unique political, economic and cultural situation in each of the 54 African states, encouraging vibrant democracies, human rights, and corruption-free institutions.
Instead of viewing China’s presence in Africa solely in adversarial terms, the US should seek areas of cooperation that build on our respective strengths. By finding common ground, the US and China can each bring different assets and skills to the challenges Africa faces as the resources needed far surpass either nation’s capacity to provide unilaterally. Or as President Obama said of China in Africa: “the more the merrier.” The US can also support the development of African leadership to assume public and private sector decision-making responsibility for its own development, emphasizing education, the rule of law, and sustainable institutions.
Ignoring some of the missteps of the past four years, the US has definite strengths to bring to its relations with Africa. 1) We have a strong civil society presence that supports humanitarian, health care, and human rights objectives, such as the Gates Foundation, 2) We have been primary sponsors and funders of multilateral institutions which have supported decolonialization, conflict prevention and resolution, and economic development, 3) The US government has committed soft power resources such as HIV prevention and treatment, support for peacebuilding and democratic institutions, education, anticorruption, and the strengthening of labor and environmental standards, 4) The US has shown a willingness to partner with Africans in pursuing mutually agreed upon objectives, 5) Although limited, US loan authorities are far less predatory and more transparent than the Chinese, 6) The US has stressed market oriented solutions through trade and investment that are more likely to promote African entrepreneurship and innovation rather than the State sponsored, top down approach taken by China which some critics claim has a 50% failure rate, and (7) Perhaps, most importantly, the US, at its best, shares an African heritage that enriches our diverse population culturally and economically.
Thus, the US should build on its strengths and the tools available to it in formulating an African policy that is forward looking and focused on the challenges of climate change, migration, sustainable economic development, health care infrastructure, education, job creation, entrepreneurship and trade. Vibrant trade has lasting economic benefits that far exceed the impact of transient aid or predatory loans. Completing the negotiation of a free trade agreement between the US and Kenya would establish an important model.
The selection of the US and China as co-chairs of the GS-20 Committee on Climate Change is an auspicious beginning for a collaborative approach, and the Committee should view Africa as a good starting point for cooperation. The US and China could also take a more aggressive stance in African debt restructuring and forgiveness and extend the G-20 Agreement on Debt Suspension which expires on June 21. China and the US have demonstrated their ability to work cooperatively in the past by their anti-piracy initiatives off the African coast. (Secretary Blinken’s proposal to include China in a multilateral forum to address the Afghanistan situation is another example of potential cooperation.)
In taking a collaborative approach to Africa, the US and China can each bring its particular strengths and tool box to the table. It may be easier to initiate a collaborative approach thorough such multilateral institutions as the G-20 and the United Nations and its specialized agencies and programs (WHO, ICAO, FOA, IFAD, UNDP, UNCDF, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, UNIDO, UN-Habitat, UN WOMEN, UNAIDS, UNEP, AND UNHCHR). The US and China could consult on achieving the UN’s Agenda ’30 (the 17 goals for sustainable development) through the UN’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), on UN Peacekeeping and UN Peacebuilding programs, on the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Additional, opportunities for collaboration include the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Chinese Development Bank, and the COVAX facility (the international vaccine distribution mechanism). [China has distributed its vaccines in Africa and the US has promised four billion dollars in funds to COVAX, and apparently will provide some vaccines to Africa by the end of the year.]
In support of its multilateral initiatives, the US should support and strengthen the following tools in its arsenal:
- The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), providing tariff free access for 6500 products from qualified sub-Sahara countries.
- PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).
- The Build Act of 2018 (Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development), providing $60 billion for the International Development Finance Corporation –DFC — to support entrepreneurship in poor countries.
- The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
- Prosper Africa, promoting US and African business connections.
- The US-Africa Leadership Summit.
- USAID bilateral aid.
- US diplomatic missions.
- The Peace Corps, when it is safe to return volunteers to the field.
- Cultural Exchange, including education, such as the Mandela Fellowships preparing future African leaders.
- Media outreach, Voice of America. Because of our common cultural heritages, many Africans respond favorably to African American achievements in the arts entertainment, sports and business.
- AFRICOM — US military support in helping fragile states combat terrorism.
- In addition to funding and enhancing these programs, the US could:
- Facilitate visas for African students and leaders and support more university scholarship programs.
- Work with China on Climate Change, health care, and UN peacekeeping in Africa.
- Provide support for rule of law, legal services, anticorruption initiatives, lending transparency, etc.
- Strengthen independent media outreach in Africa.
- Communicate and engage Africans on US strategy to address racial and other forms of discrimination, relating to human rights issues in Africa. (More cultural, civil society and business exchanges involving Black Americans would show how the US makes progress on these issues.)
- Initiate joint ventures between US tech companies and their African counterparts to address generation skipping technology transfers.
- When the President nominates an Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, it would be a propitious time to reframe US-Africa policy that builds on the many economic and cultural strengths that the US brings to the table.
China’s influence cannot be ignored because if the top down, totalitarian approach to Africa gains monopoly strength squeezing out the benefits of democracy, the rule of law, human rights and other universal values, Africa and the US will be the poorer for it. However, given the different strengths that China and the US bring to Africa and the overwhelming need, multilateral collaboration is the wisest approach.
