Five Decades of South-South Cooperation between China and Africa

Hu Mei & Liu Hongwu

Five Decades of South-South Cooperation between China and Africa

Hu Mei & Liu Hongwu

Ever since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949, the country has always identified itself as a member of developing countries in the global south and taken as a cornerstone of its foreign relations strengthening tie with other developing countries, with development cooperation being a main theme. Although Africa is far away from China, the region’s mission for development gradually made it a strategic partner of China in promoting South-South cooperation. In the meanwhile, China’s relationship with Africa has become a unique window for it to explore South-South diplomacy. In general, over five decades of aid to and cooperation with Africa have not only been a historical process of China’s diplomacy becoming more mature, but also a growth process of its ideas on South-South cooperation being constantly enriched and perfected. Along with the deepening of China’s assistance to Africa, its outlook on development and interests, cooperative relationships, and identity building, among its ideas on South-South cooperation, have gone beyond the scope of South-South cooperation – they now possess a more profound sense of the times in shaping the modern world system. It is of special significance to understand and summarize the particular practices of contemporary Chinese diplomacy in this field, with a view to advancing the theoretical system contemporary Chinese international relations.

I. The Development Outlook of South-South Cooperation: From National Liberation in Africa to Common Development of China and Africa

Development is not only the historical mission of the global south countries, but also the goal and ultimate destination of South-South cooperation. Countries from the global south have engaged in tireless explorations in their development roads, while Chinese assistance to Africa reflects an evolution of China’s ideas on South-South cooperation from focusing on the political realm to attaching equal importance on both political and economic realms, from partial emphasis on Africa’s development to taking into account the common development of both sides.

The South-South cooperation between China and Africa started with the political struggle and national liberation movements in Africa, during which the same mission of fighting against imperialism, colonialism, and hegemonism made the two sides share the role of political revolutionary as well as the challenger of the existent order. Meanwhile, the same historical fate gave China the courage and impetus to change the old order together with Africa and firmly support African countries in their national independence movements.

During this period, China regarded Asian, African and Latin American countries as the essential forces against imperialism and colonialism. In his meeting with Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda in 1974, Mao Zedong pointed out that developing countries were “the main force against imperialism, colonialism and hegemony,” and emphasized China’s strong support for these countries “in their just struggle for winning and preserving national independence, safeguarding sovereignty, and developing national economies.” China pushed aside all obstacles and difficulties to lend its full support to African countries in their national liberation movements. Given the significance of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) for the liberation movements in southern Africa, the Chinese government decided to provide a huge amount of money to assist the building of TAZARA, although the Chinese economy also needed these funds for their own support and development. Zhou Enlai once pointed out that “TAZARA is not only economically significant, but more important militarily and politically significant for Tanzania and Zambia. These two sister countries are still besieged by imperialism, colonialism, and racism, and they share the common understanding that there would be no real independence and liberation for themselves without the liberation of their neighboring countries.” Clearly, in the Chinese leader’s views on aid, the political development of Africa implied not just the independence and liberation of one or two countries, but also that of all of southern Africa and even all African countries. Therefore, the areas covered by China’s South-South cooperation in this period went beyond a specific country or place and enjoyed a distinctive feature of the global south countries jointly seeking their national liberation. At his meeting with Kaunda, Mao offered the best footnote to South-South cooperation during this period: “If the whole world is not liberated, neither China can liberate itself, nor can you emancipate yourselves in the end.”

The South-South cooperation between China and Africa started with the political struggle and national liberation movements in Africa.

“If the whole world is not liberated, neither China can liberate itself, nor can you emancipate yourselves in the end.”

After African countries achieved victories in their national liberation movements and established autonomous countries, China’s aid to Africa did not stop but began to adjust toward consolidating national independence and bringing about economic development. China’s policy adjustments accorded with what Samir Amin, an Egyptian economist, understood as decolonization. Amin once said that “the achievement of political decolonization in Asia and Africa” was just the minimum common program of the South countries, while “gaining economic, social and cultural liberation is the goal.” So, China’s ideas on South-South cooperation turned toward paying equal attention to national liberation and economic cooperation. While China continued to provide political support for those countries seeking national independence, it also offered economic assistance to African countries in order to help the newly independent countries realize their economic recoveries. According to some statistics, China provided Africa with economic aid worth over $2.476 billion during 1956-1977, which accounted for 58% of all of China’s foreign aid. Although the massive aid was offered to different African countries, there was an obvious common feature in it: the assistance was aimed at the development of African countries, thus taking on a feature different from traditional aid. During his visit to Africa in 1963, Zhou Enlai for the first time announced the policy positions of the Chinese government on foreign aid, known as “China’s Eight Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance to Other Countries,”which presented an official explanation of China’s outlook on development in a more systematic and comprehensive manner, namely “the Chinese government’s foreign assistance is not intended to result in the dependency of the recipient countries upon China, but rather to help them gradually embark on a road of self-reliance,” continuing on to say that “the programs help the recipient countries strive to yield quicker results with less investment, so as to increase the revenues of and accumulate capital for the recipient countries.” China changed the traditional aid providers’ discouragement and disappointment with Africa and was full of hope and confidence between the lines of its policy positions with regard to the future development of Africa, thus great providing encouragement for Africa to embark on a road of self-reliance.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, China’s foreign policy adjusted from serving political purposes to serving domestic economic construction. Some transformative structural adjustments occurred to the foreign relations of both China and Africa. This grand background became a starting point for developing countries to reconstruct their ideas on development. At the same time, Africa also faced major readjustments in their economic and social development. After the African economic recession in the 1970s, the West began to play a dominant role in carrying out comprehensive liberal economic reforms in Africa throughout the 1980s, and the negative social effects of the programs for economic structural adjustments promoted by Africa gradually became prominent. Some far-sighted African people started to reflect and explore a path of economic development suitable to Africa. It had become a common theme and pursuit of both China and Africa to explore a road of economic development suitable to the South countries, and it had also become an important part of South-South cooperation.

As a developing country, China’s aid to Africa was free from the constraints and perplexities of the dependent and unequal relations between Africa and its traditional colonialists. China’s aid had become an important option for the developing countries in the South to jointly seek economic development and progress. Although evidence had just appeared of China’s economy beginning to emerge out of the woods and embark on a fast track of development, the Chinese government insisted that it had “a responsibility and obligation to provide assistance for the third world within our capacity” and regarded it as “an unshakable international obligation.” In 1983, the Chinese government proposed “Four Principles” with regard to policies on foreign aid: “equality and mutual benefit, effectiveness, multi-forms, and common development,” which means that foreign aid projects would be implemented in line with the laws of the market economy.

The proposal of the Four Principles was not only a major revision of China’s foreign aid policy, but also a significant turning point of the Chinese concept on South-South cooperation. According to the new principles on foreign aid, China no longer unilaterally emphasized the development of African countries, and the focus of development was no longer confined to political emancipation. Instead, the focus was placed on common progress and the development of both the Chinese and African economies and societies. The Four Principles stated explicitly that “the purpose of cooperation is to learn from and help each other, in order to facilitate both sides in enhancing their self-reliance capability and promote their national economic development.” Whether it was “learning from each other” or “helping each other,” both took as a premise recognizing and accepting the advantages and strengths of African development, which were not only the basis for the future development of Africa but also key factors for China and Africa to effectively interact with each other. The proposal of the common development concept marked a major breakthrough in China’s ideas of assisting Africa, surmounting its previous one-way emphasis on promoting African development, and expanding the breadth and depth of South-South cooperation in the framework of two-way economic interaction. It also demonstrated new meaning and significance of the new-type South-South cooperation that went beyond the traditional one, and constituted a leap-forward of the Chinese concept on South-South cooperation.

“When you lead the development of the world, we want to follow your footsteps closely.”

Along with the spread of China’s ideas on aid, South-South cooperation is also carried out in more fields and through more diversified platforms, particularly with regard to the means of narratives and platforms of development. In 2000, China and Africa jointly launched the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as an institutionalized platform for China-Africa cooperation. Now the Forum has covers a third of the world’s population, providing China and African countries not only with a fixed platform for cooperation but also an institutional assurance for expanding cooperative areas, upgrading cooperative levels, and transforming cooperative structures. After ten years of development and four consecutive FOCACs, the cooperation forum has become an important brand-program for China and numerous South countries to achieve development. Meanwhile, India, Brazil, Republic of Korea (ROK), and other countries have also exploited this pattern one after another to develop cooperation with Africa and have drawn worldwide attention. In fact, common development is not just the vision and policy of the Chinese government but also the aspiration and dream of many African countries. Seeing China’s rapid development as well as its role regarding African development, many African leaders have said that they will “look east.” Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said to visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao,“when you lead the development of the world, we want to follow your footsteps closely.”

Spurred by Sino-African cooperation, their trade and business contacts have boomed, with China becoming Africa’s largest trading partner and Africa having become China’s fourth largest investment destination. Sino-African trade volume increased from $10 billion in 2000 to 106.8 billion in 2008, further increasing to 126.9 billion in 2010 in spite of the global financial crisis. Some Western critics point out that in Sino-African trade, the amount of China’s imports of African goods is less than the number of its exports to Africa, and there that China is essentially dumping its products to Africa. In this regard, a Financial Times article pointed out that “the value of sub-Saharan Africa’s imports from China tends to be lower than the value of its exports to China, but not always and not by much: over the past decade imports were worth between 65 per cent and 105 per cent of the value of exports.” Foreign scholars are ignorant of China and Africa’s development rhythm. As a result, many scholars hold that China arranges its aid to Africa in line with its own development rhythm and needs. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson even describes China as a “very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals.” As a matter of fact, in Sino-African cooperation, China not only endeavors to facilitate the Chinese companies’ entrance into Africa but also attaches importance to introducing African enterprises into the Chinese market. To meet the demands for capital by the Chinese enterprises’ entrance into Africa, China set up a “Sino-African Development Fund” in 2006 as a means of assisting them; at the same time, to meet the demands and the current condition of African products in their entrance into the Chinese market, China established an “African Commodities Exhibition Center”in Yiwu, Zhejiang, a coastal province in China, which implies that the Chinese government is willing to step in to help African products enter the Chinese market. Through this platform, the export growth of African products to China accelerated. Now, some special local products, such as Egyptian citrus, South Africa’s wine, Ghanaian cocoa beans, Uganda’s coffee, and Tunisian olive oil, have gradually become well-known favorites of Chinese consumers. In support of African countries’ export expansion to China, the latter has since 2005 offered the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Africa that have diplomatic relations with China zero tariffs on some of their exports to China. By July 2010, African products that enjoy zero-tariff treatment had increased to 4,700 taxable items, and they are expected to cover 95% of the total taxable items mentioned in the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Import and Export Duties. According to the white paper on Sino-African Economic and Trade Cooperation, released by the Information Office of the State Council of P. R. China in December 2010, China had imported African products worth an accumulated value of $1.32 billion under zero-tariff terms, from 2005 to the end of June 2010.

II. Chinese Interest in South-South Cooperation: From Asking Nothing in Return to Mutual Benefit

Interests are the purpose and destination of any cooperation. Hans Morgenthau, a renowned master of realist international relations theory, even maintains that whatever the form of foreign aid, it is political in nature, with the objective being to safeguard and promote national interests. The core of the realist theory of international aid includes the state as the main actor, interests rising above everything else, and the pursuit of power. China’s aid to Africa experienced a transformative process from free aid to the coexistence of multi-form aid, while its pursuit of interests also experienced a process from no strings attached to mutual benefit.

Before China adopted the policies of reform and opening-up in 1978, its aid to Africa was mainly free. Inspired by the spirit of internationalism, China emphasized doing its utmost in assisting Africa and asked nothing in return during this period. Given the fact that the newly independent African countries had long been subjected to colonial exploitation, suffered from economic backwardness, and were short of funds and talent, China’s assistance to Africa during this period was mainly to help build some projects that could meet the basic needs of the people’s livelihood, ultimately with an aim of helping African countries gradually become self-sufficient in developing their national economies. In 1964, China stated clearly in its “Eight Principles” on aid that “the Chinese government would provide financial assistance through interest-free or low-interest loans, and that it would extend the repayment period when needed in order to minimize the burden on the recipient countries.”Zhou Enlai pointed out in his “Government Work Report”at the Third National People’s Congress in 1964 that “in the future, as China’s economic power grows, it should earnestly strengthen foreign aid within its capacity and strive to make greater contributions to internationalism.” This demonstrates that China considered its aid to Africa more for Africa’s sake rather than for its own economic interest. Many African leaders also acknowledged this by saying that “China’s assistance to us is unselfish and fruitful.”

However, asking nothing in return does not mean that there were no returns at all. The Chinese aid, with no political conditions attached, won China firm support in international politics from African countries. In 1971, the United Nations adopted Resolution 2758, through which China’s legitimate seat was restored. In the marathon of China’s return to the United Nations, African countries engaged in a decade of struggle and made significant contributions. Among the 76 votes in favor of China resuming its legitimate seat, 26 essential votes were from African countries.

This being said, the prolonged large-scale free aid to Africa posed a heavy financial burden on the Chinese economy, which was also in urgent need of development. By the 1970s, the passion for free aid without strings attached had not completely subsided, but the material basis and political conditions to maintain this enthusiasm were significantly weakened. During this period, China ran into a huge fiscal deficit due to the heavy burden of foreign aid, coupled with a series of domestic economic policy failures. But even under such circumstances, China’s foreign aid accounted for 1% of its GDP during the first and second Five-year Plans, increasing to 6.7% in 1972, 7.2% in 1973, and 6.3% in 1974 respectively, far exceeding the level that China’s national power could afford. In April 1975, the CPC Central Committee maintained after a study that the size of foreign aid during this period was actually too large, leading to a structural imbalance in the Chinese economy and exerting a direct pressure upon the flexibility of Sino-African aid relations. As a result of the extreme structural imbalance of interests, South-South cooperation also got into trouble.

In order to maintain the sustainability of Sino-African aid relations, they had to rethink the deep-seated flaws in this kind of assistance and began to explore a model of aid that would take both sides’ economic and development interests into account, so as to benefit them through aid and cooperation. After adopting the policies of reform and opening-up to the outside world, China began to explore a new assistance model combining foreign aid and self-development, i.e., a cooperation model of“mutual benefit.” In early 1983, the CPC Central Committee proposed “Four Principles” on foreign aid, including “equality and mutual benefit, effectiveness, multi-forms, and common development.” The policy adjustments of China’s assistance to Africa demonstrated that the interest structure of Sino-African aid relations underwent a transition from never asking for anything to a relationship dominated by mutual benefit and the pursuit of substantial results. As a result, South-South cooperation broke away from its previous unilateral dedication and embarked on a new voyage of jointly seeking development interests through cooperation.

The potential development that could result from the principle of mutual benefit has been brought into play within a short amount of time.

Both sides have new perceptions and expectations on the goals and benefits of Sino-African aid and cooperative relations. Development is the most significant mission for China and African countries, who themselves are still developing countries. Thus, China and African countries re-examined their positions on South-South cooperation and endeavored to identify and practice a brandnew survival culture that would take common development as its basis. China and Africa follow the principle of mutual benefit in addressing the issue of common development and attach importance to improving the economic efficiency and long-term effects of foreign aid projects. Market forces and economic factors are included in this model of foreign aid. In their assistance to Africa, Chinese companies have not only accomplished their mission of aid provision, but also driven the pace of their own entrance into Africa.

The potential development that could result from the principle of mutual benefit has been brought into play within a short amount of time. As a result, many traditional donor countries are highly skeptical of China’s impact in Africa. In the field of Sino-African resource cooperation, a field that arouses much concern and controversy, China has repeatedly been criticized for “plundering” African resources. However, China is not the largest consumer of African oil resources. Statistics show that Europe and the United States remain the major consumers of African oil, with Europe buying 36% and the U.S. buying 33% respectively. In contrast, Chinese imports account for approximately 10-16% of Africa’s total exports of crude oil. In the industry of oil extraction, the share of the Chinese companies in Africa is also very limited. In their testimony before the Subcommittee on African Affairs in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 4, 2008, James Swan and Thomas J. Chhristensen stated that “in 2006, total output by all Chinese producers was approximately one-third of a single U.S. firm’s (ExxonMobil) African production.” Different from the practice of major European and American powers, China pays high attention and attaches great importance to local economic and social development when they are mining Africa’s rich natural resources. Chinese investment in African infrastructure has gradually increased year by year, from an average of $500 million per year during 2001-2003, to a rate of $1.5 billion per year during 2004-2005, and to $7 billion in 2006. These funds are mainly used to build hydropower stations and railways in Africa. By the end of 2007, China had provided at least $3.3 billion for the construction of hydropower stations, with an electric energy production of over 60 gigawatts. After completion, these projects will increase the power supply of sub-Saharan Africa by 30%. China has assisted more than 900 infrastructure projects for at least 35 African countries, and its “Angola model” has become a typical development pattern in Africa. As Africa is in extreme need of infrastructure, such projects will provide a rare opportunity for future development. African countries welcome and commend the win-win model of Sino-African cooperation. For instance, in an interview with FTChinese.com on September 16, 2011, Guinean President Alpha Condé stated explicitly that the Chinese-Guinean relationship is not one of exchanging resources for money, and that Guinea intends to develop with China a strong long-term partnership that will prove to be “a win-win relationship with China.”

In the Chinese concept of South-South cooperation, whether it is “asking nothing in return” or mutual benefit, both are paths to development for the South countries; they also mark China’s psychological expectations about the interests and distribution through cooperation. From never asking for anything to mutual benefit, South-South cooperation goes beyond a oneway relationship, with the subject conquering, dominating, and occupying the object. South-South cooperation forms a positive relationship of two-way interaction between the subject and the object. The transition from asking nothing in return to mutual benefit has done no harm to the benefits of African countries in Sino-African cooperation; instead it has increased the interaction and co-prosperity of African countries through their cooperative partnership and fully mobilized the innate strengths and advantages, which are stimulated and fully released in cooperation with the local economy. Along with the deepening of South-South cooperation, the South countries have significantly enhanced their national interest convergence and interconnectedness with one another through cooperation. They have increasingly been forming a holistic approach towards coexistence and common development, while mutual benefit has become a driver for continuously pushing forward this “all-win or all-lose” relationship.

III. Cooperation in the Chinese Concept on South-South Relationship: From Mutual Aid to Mutual Cooperation

China’s aid to Africa is a kind of interaction and cooperation centered on the theme of development between the two sides. China surmounts traditional ideas regarding aid of charity and breaks the established structural aid pattern s, while its viewpoint in looking at aid relations stays no longer just at the donor state but also extends to the recipient country. In addition, China also stresses that roles change between the donor and the recipient, being the subject and the object alternatively, in its aid relationship with Africa. Therefore, the Sino-African relationship goes beyond that of aid provider and aid recipient and has always remained a dynamic one of cooperation. In this cooperative relationship, while China has shifted its focus from aid to cooperation, Sino-African relations have also realized a transition from mutual assistance and mutual support to mutual cooperation of mutual benefit and common development.

As a traditional recipient of aid and as a developing country, China gained important references and lessons from its own feelings and developmental experiences. China has all the while upheld in its aid to Africa that the development momentum for African countries rests with themselves and that African countries real emphasis. So, China stresses and proposes a kind of aid relationship in which the donor state and the recipient country are inter-subjective actors. In the Eight Principles on Aid of 1964, the Chinese government clearly defined the Sino-African relationship as one of mutual assistance, saying that“the Chinese government has always been providing assistance in accordance with the principle of equality and mutual benefit, but it has never regarded such an aid as unilateral charity but instead mutual support.” As a donor country, China does not carry an air of arrogance and condescension like the traditional donor states in their African assistance efforts, but replaces it with an ordinary mindset of mutual respect. Both China and Africa have benefited from this cooperative relationship of mutual assistance. Zhou Enlai made it clear that “we provide aid to the brother countries and the newly independent states to strengthen their power, which in turn will undermine the power of imperialism and is therefore a great support for us.”

As aid is mutual, the aid provider and recipient enjoy equal footing in their aid relationship, which lays a foundation for equal contacts between China and Africa. Botswana’s former President Festus Mogae held that China’s assistance to Africa has broken the shackles of charity and hierarchy in traditional aid and instead formed a relationship of equality and mutual assistance. He said, “I find that the Chinese people treat us equally, but the West treats us as their subordinates.” Different from North-South aid, the advantage of South-South aid lies not in sufficient funds or a variety of modern technologies used for cooperation, but rather in the South countries’ deep understanding that the momentum for development stems from within and is dependant on the principle of equal exchanges, which is in turn formed on the basis of the aforementioned understanding. When addressing relations with the recipient countries, this kind of equal contact implies “bringing their advantages into full play” and finding a development road suited to their specific national conditions. Equal exchanges between the donor state and the recipient country are reflected in “their non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.” Just as former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere said, “China has never had any attempt to control our policies or to undermine our national sovereignty and dignity, whether through the enormous economic and technical assistance that China gives to my country, or in our contact at the international conference.”In this aid relationship, Africa’s indigenous knowledge and developmental needs are not only fully respected and valued, but Africa itself as well has gradually developed from an arbitrarily imagined and constructed object into a respected and recognized subject of development.

“Not just Africa but the West itself has much to learn from China.”

In the North-South aid relations, the traditional North donor countries have always tried to attach various conditions to their aid to Africa, the most typical being “democracy” and “good governance,” exporting their values and national systems to African countries. In contrast, the Chinese government has always advocated cooperation with Africa and that no political conditions should be attached to aid provisions, that African countries could refer to and learn from the experiences of China’s development model, and that the African people are encouraged to “explore a development path suited to their specific national conditions.” In this regard, the Western countries are very critical of the Chinese aid with no strings attached and maintain that it will breed corruption and is not conducive to the development of Africa. Professor Deborah Brautigam, an American scholar who has been engaged in research on China’s aid to Africa for a long time, finds in a study that the Chinese aid projects organized by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) use a competitive bidding process to select Chinese companies, and that the Chinese government almost never transfers any actual money to African leaders in their loans to African countries and only rarely gives aid as cash grants. She writes that “keeping the money in China through payments to Chinese companies and their subcontractors authorized by the borrowing government actually aids in avoiding large-scale embezzlement of funds.” More and more African countries have begun to approve of the strong points of the Chinese aid model, and President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade even wrote in a Financial Times article on January 23, 2008 that “not just Africa but the West itself has much to learn from China.”

Along with the deepening of reform and opening-up in the 1980s, China continued to adjust its foreign aid policy. The reciprocal aid relationship between China and Africa based on equality and mutual assistance lays a foundation for building a cooperative relationship of “mutual aid,” and balanced cooperation between them has gradually replaced mutual aid. China and African countries belong to developing countries. Although both sides need to improve their levels of economic, scientific, and technological sophistication, there remains a reciprocal space of mutual benefit as well as the possibility of complementing each other’s advantages. Just as Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist and former World Bank consultant, wrote in her book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa, “they have what we want, and we have what they need.” In this sense, China and Africa have cultivated numerous common interests in such areas as resources, technology, agriculture, and education where each side enjoys different advantages, has expanded a lot of space for cooperation and mutual benefit, and has formed diversified cooperation in many fields.

The transition from assistance to cooperation involves not just a change in name but also a change in the cooperative dimensions and the way that technology is shared between China and Africa. In cooperative relations, an interactive aid relationship is displaced by interactive structures between cooperators. Compared with aid, cooperation will help both sides progress towards even deeper cooperation. Sino-African cooperation creates a possible space for technological exchanges and technical staff training, as well as a platform for the common development of less developed countries. As a result of the Chinese-Sudanese technological cooperation over petroleum, Sudan has transformed from an importer to an exporter of petroleum products and acquired a systemic capability in the oil industry, integrating oil exploration, production, refinement, transportation, and sales. After over 50 years of oil exploration by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria, it remains a petroleum-exporting country, without any oil production and processing system. A senior Nigerian foreign affairs official is quoted in a Financial Times article on February 23, 2006 saying that “the Western world is never prepared to transfer technology – but the Chinese do.” The foundation and current situation of China’s technological development is also more suitable to the specific national conditions of African countries, and, as a result, their cooperation has generated far better results. When the African communications industry was controlled by Ericsson and Motorola, the market was not well developed. The situation has completely changed since China’s Huawei and other communications companies began cooperating with Africa. Xie Boyang, vice-president of All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce, also known as Chinese Business Chamber, said that the reason for this lies in the fact that China’s “low-cost development road is more suitable to Africa than the Western model.”

“The Western world is never prepared to transfer technology –but the Chinese do.”

In cooperative relationships, the developmental needs of both sides are valued and respected. Through cooperation, both sides can reach their development targets, so it is possible to maintain sustainable cooperation. Through the Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC), which has been held every three years since 2000, China and Africa constantly find and expand the fields and spaces for their cooperation in line with the everchanging international environment and their own internal developmental advantages. According to new situations in and new expectations for their respective development, they also create new cooperative platforms, timely adjust the content and priorities, look for new growth points, and efficiently meet their psychological expectations for cooperation. Along with the advancement of FOCAC, China and Africa have increasingly expanded their cooperative realms, among which finance, tourism, aviation, environmental protection have gradually become new areas and highlights. For example, in Sino-African financial cooperation, China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and other Chinese banks have been operating across Africa. By the end of 2009, six banks of five African countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon, South Africa and Nigeria, had set up branches or representative offices in China. The development of Sino-African financial co-operation will greatly facilitate the comprehensive expansion of Sino-African cooperation.

The cooperative relationship between the two sides builds up cooperation, and vice versa. The experience of successful Sino-African cooperation has become the momentum and foundation for its constant advancement, while the obstacles to and problems in it have also provided new opportunities for its continuous innovation. Along with the expansion of the size of economic and trade cooperation between China and African countries, China’s textile products flooded into the South African market, and to some extent, have had a serious impact upon its textile industry, one of the countries pillar industries. To address this situation, Premier Wen Jiabao promised during his visit to South Africa that China would take initiative in limiting the amount of clothing and textile products exported to the South African market. But before this, no country had taken initiatives in signing similar unilateral preferential trade agreements with Africa. The Sino-South African cooperative relationship builds upon textile trade, while the latter promotes the continuous advancement of the former.

During 56 years of aid and cooperation, China and Africa have formed a mutually constructed relationship, which as a result is not a static one but a continuously perfecting, optimizing, and cooperative system. The experience of successful Sino-African cooperation will provide a basis for further cooperation between China and Africa, and at the same time, their higher expectations also have become a driving force for further deepening their cooperation. In the South-South cooperation between China and Africa, cooperation goes beyond the colonial relationship, and, from the perspective of development, has taken on a feature of in-depth exchanges and integration through cooperation among South countries.

IV. Identity Construction in the Chinese Concept on South-South Cooperation: From Political Peers to Development Pursuers

Identity is the self-perception of actors in international relations as well as the self-orientation upon which these actors rely to address their relations with the outside world. Samuel Huntington believes that identity is “the self-perception of a person or a group,” while social psychologists argue that identity is actually “how a person or a group defines who he or she is, including personal and common traits.” The process of South-South cooperation between China and Africa is actually one in which both sides continuously construct their mutual identities through contact. After 56 years of Chinese aid to Africa, their identities have shifted from political peers of jointly fighting against colonialism and imperialism to pursuers of common economic and social development. During this transformative process, their equal status has remained unchanged.

The most important thing for African countries seeking national independence was to construct their own identities. During the colonial era, African colonies experienced profound and subversive identity crises. Through contact with China, a country with a similar historical memory that just achieved its national independence, Africa gradually gained an identity of its own. Their common colonial memory was internalized as a collective one of anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism. The two sides joined together and formed a supra-national political community in their resistance against the strong members of the international order at the time. Their common identity as developing countries, and their shared memory of colonial history and national resistance, all enhanced the level of their common destiny. In order to survive, China and Africa as two major political communities went beyond time and space in building a common battlefront against imperialism and colonialism, constructing a collective identity of resistance, and acquiring a common identity, through the platform of aid.

When African countries fought for and consolidated their national independence, a process that lasted for quite a long time, contact between China and Africa surmounted the violent relationship formed with the West, and strengthened a strong common identity. In July 1956, the Egyptian government announced its nationalization of the Suez Canal, with 96% of its share previously being controlled by Britain and France, and the move effectively triggered “the Second Middle Eastern War.” The Chinese government issued two statements saying that China could not idly sit watching Egypt’s sovereignty and territory suffer from any form of infringement and that it was “willing to do all it could and take all effective measures, material support included, to assist Egypt’s struggle.” As a newborn regime, China’s political and economic power was still very limited at the time, and it was impossible for China to offer enormous material aid. Thus, China’s support was more of a staunch spiritual inspiration rather than strong material support. The source of power that China presented Africa originated from the spiritual encouragement and identity support, generated by China’s anti-colonialist and antiimperialist identity, rather than from its combat capacity, brought about by China’s material aid. Hassan Ragab, the first Egyptian Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, strongly praised China’s aid as huge and generous, which “played a tremendous role in improving the Egyptian people’s ability to fight against the evil invaders and consolidated friendly relations between the two countries.” Since China was “carried into” the United Nations by African countries in 1971, the Chinese delegation to the United Nations has always upheld justice for Africa’s anti-colonial struggle at every UN General Assembly.

When China aids Africa in line with the spirit of the “Eight Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance to Other Countries,” “the experts dispatched by China to help in construction in recipient countries will have the same standard of living as the experts of the recipient country. The Chinese experts are not allowed to make any special demands or enjoy any special amenities.” In this way, the Chinese experts assisting Africa hold an identity as equals to the experts of African countries. This is China’s attitude toward recipient countries and their peoples, an approach that also has an impact upon the effectiveness of aid. Just as Professor Deborah Brautigam argued in her book The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, the high wages enjoyed by most Western aid workers was one of the sources of local people’s sufferings, which was completely different from anything in the Chinese case. So, she reminded people of the necessity to bear in mind these differences when observing and evaluating Chinese experts assisting Africa.

Instead, the Sino-African relationship is considered as “a pivot in the relational structure between China and the outside world”.

Along with the consolidation of national independence in Africa, comprehensive economic and social development has gradually become the primary and realistic mission of the Chinese and African people. After carrying out reform and opening-up policies, China’s national focus has shifted to economic construction. New social contexts place Sino-African cooperation on a brand-new historical starting point. On such issues as eradicating poverty and achieving economic development, China adjusted its identity in its relations with Africa during this period – it is no longer a peer revolutionary, but instead a co-development partner and common pursuer for the cause of world peace and development.

Along with the advancement of its economic and social status, China’s international status has also been enhanced. However, its identity as a South country has remained unchanged. Under the idea that “developing countries are the foundation” of China’s diplomacy, the relationship orientation between China and African countries has not altered. In the new era, Sino-African cooperation has become an important and special component of China’s foreign relations. Some academic studies argue that in China’s strategic vision, Africa’s status does not suffer from a decline. Instead, the Sino-African relationship is considered as “a pivot in the relational structure between China and the outside world” and “a platform for China on its way of moving towards the outside world with dignity.” At a finance meeting during the 2005 World Summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao made it clear that“China is a low- and middle-income developing country ... but [that it] will do [its]] best to support and assist other developing countries in accelerating development.” Hu proposed five measures to support the progress of developing countries so as to make the twenty-first century into “a century of development for all.” In the face of the ensuing global financial crisis, traditional Western donor states have largely withdrawn their investments in and cut their aid to Africa, while the Chinese government has made clear commitments that it will not reduce its aid to Africa due to the financial crisis, and in the meanwhile that it will expand its trade with and investments in Africa on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and help African countries enhance their ability for sustainable development and withstanding risk. It also urged in an active manner the international community to earnestly fulfill commitments made in the past, with an aim of helping create a favorable external environment for African countries to tide over the difficult times. For instance, a Chinese mining enterprise in Zambia promised after the outbreak of the international financial crisis that it “will not slash production, not lay off workers, and not reduce investment,” thus becoming the only one that doesn’t reduce either production or staff among the seven foreign-invested mining enterprises in Zambia. While other countries, in the face of crisis, reduce their aid budgets to Africa, China continues to fulfill its commitments to aid Africa. This demonstrates, on the one hand, China’s courage to cope with the crisis of development together with African countries, and on the other hand, China’s efforts and determination to play its role as a development partner, even in crisis.

In the process of assisting the revival and meeting the developmental needs of other Asian and African countries, China itself has also achieved a great leap-forward in terms of its economy. By virtue of its excellent economic performance, China has gradually obtained the properties of a transitional state between developing and developed nation status, and it has gradually broken away from being a peripheral state in the international system. China has also become one of the emerging economies together with India, Brazil, South Africa and other countries, thus contributing to revising the current international system by changing the world’s power distribution. Just as what Joshua Cooper Ramo writes in The Beijing Consensus: Notes on the New Physics of Chinese Power,“what is happening in China at the moment is not only a model for China, but has begun to remake the whole landscape of international development, economics, society and, by extension, politics.” Although China is shifting from a state focusing on its own development to a global country that pays more attention to the development of all Asian and African countries, it still regards itself as a developing country and adheres to its initial identity of being equal with African countries. In 2007, Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed in his visit to Africa that “in the past, present and future, the Chinese people are the African people’s good friends of equality and mutual trust and sincerity, good partners of mutual benefit, reciprocity, and cooperation, and good brothers sharing weal and woe.” Whether it is a friend, partner or brother, in the Chinese ethical concepts, all are referred to as peers, devoid of hierarchical differences in status. Their equal status is not only reflected in words, but also incarnated in official Chinese and African policy papers. For example, China’s African Policy, released on January 12, 2006, interprets the connotation of China and Africa developing a new type of strategic partnership as “political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation, and cultural exchange.” So, in addition to their equal status, mutual trust, win-win cooperation, and mutual cultural learning indicate deeper interaction and a comprehensive exchange between China and Africa. China’s international identity has witnessed several transformations and China’s concrete aid policies to Africa have also undergone several adjustments. However, these have not changed China’s equal and humble attitude in its relationship with African countries.

However, as China is a developing country, its cooperation with Africa is a cause of international cooperation and is built on the vision of developing countries. How to implement internationalized cooperation, with the identity of being a South country and in line with the standards of South-South cooperation, is a major problem plaguing China in the current South-South cooperation situation. For example, the issue of international labor standards is now under hot discussion across the world, while environmental issues are rising in Africa, corporate social responsibilities loom in many developing country contexts, and Chinese companies’ entrance into Africa create their own criteria. When Chinese operate in Africa, they implement labor and environmental standards and fulfill their social responsibilities according to the Chinese standards and characteristics. But these criteria and narratives may not conform to African countries’ customs or international practices. As a result, Chinese companies are frequently criticized by Western countries. With regard to this, the Chinese government is now working to take some measures to solve relevant issues in a gradual manner. The Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning has already drafted environmental guidelines for those Chinese companies taking part in aid and overseas investment. The China Development Bank has promised to“adopt the highest social and environmental standards for those companies benefiting from its loans.” In 2008, the Export-Import Bank of China also upgraded its “Environmental Protection Policy,” adhering to the policy of “green credit” initiated by the Central Government. Chinese enterprises in Africa take initiative in assuming their social responsibilities, thus benefiting the local population. According to the white paper on Sino-African Economic and Trade Cooperation, programs for the public good organized by Chinese enterprises have benefited over two million people in Sudan, while friendship schools in Nigeria aided by China aided promoted elementary education in 300 villages. Actions taken by the Chinese government and enterprises reveal that China has realized that there exist various problems, such as social and international responsibilities, in South-South cooperation. As a result, China is actively taking actions and striving to develop higher standards to regulate the behavior of its enterprises in Africa. However, when the Chinese companies and enterprises, who all hail from South country, participate in international cooperation, they will have to face an important challenge of identity transformation in the coming future.

V. Conclusion

After 60 years of hard work, China has reemerged as a world power from a poor and backward country and has gradually begun to march from being a typical developing country into the ranks of being a developed country. In this process, China has always regarded itself as a member of the developing countries and viewed its ideals, emotions, behavior, and goals from this perspective. China needs to combine its own development with promoting the development of the Asian and African countries, thus contributing to the development of Africa. The course of 56 years of China’s aid to and cooperation with Africa bears witness to the growth of the Chinese concept of South-South cooperation, while the growth process is one in which China and Africa continuously create, preserve, and strengthen their understanding regarding South-South cooperation. It is also a collective crystallization of China and Africa’s unique diplomatic wisdoms, demonstrating their deep understanding and interpretation of South-South cooperation.

The essence of 56 years of South-South cooperation remains unchanged, but its contents have been constantly deepened and enriched.

The essence of 56 years of South-South cooperation remains unchanged, but its contents have been constantly deepened and enriched. For developing countries, development is the ultimate inherent demand and the loftiest historical mission. China’s aid to Africa underwent a historical process of transformation, from being a friend who provides African countries with free and no-strings aid on an equal footing and helps them achieve national independence, to being a collaborator who develops comprehensive cooperation with African countries for mutual benefit, with a view of ultimately realizing the common development of both sides. Along with the advancement of China’s aid to Africa as well as the changes in Sino-African relations, new contents and meaning have constantly been injected into the Chinese approach to South-South cooperation. Under the new concept on South-South cooperation, China and Africa address, with a brand-new South country identity and attitude, their relations with the outside world and other South countries. By way of South-South cooperation, China and Africa have been engaged in cooperation with each other for up to 56 years, in line with the principle of equality and mutual assistance, and have now created a favorable situation of mutual benefit and common development. Each with equal status, China and Africa have been awakening in their sense of belonging to the South, have gradually constructed an identity as equal South members, and have increasingly become actors of international relations on the international political arena, enjoying equal status with the North countries.

Hu Mei is PhD and Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University; Liu Hongwu is Director of the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University.