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Yunus Kemp
IN a week’s time from now, African heads of state will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Johannesburg at the Forum for China Africa Co-operation (Focac). The meeting would be preceded by the global leader’s two-day state visit to Zimbabwe on December 1 and 2. President Robert Mugabe, the Chairman of the African Union, has confirmed Xi would be in Harare early next month to discuss wider issues of political and economic co-operation before going to South Africa.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner, having developed a mutual, sound and vibrant partnership with trade volume between the two increasing exponentially over the past decade, rising from about $10 billion in 2000 to more than $198 billion in 2012, according to the latest white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation released by the Chinese government in 2013, and projected to reach $220 billion for 2014.

Chinese investment in Africa has grown over the past decade, with direct investment estimated at more than $30 billion in 2014.

The sixth instalment of this Sino-African initiative (first held in 2000 and every three years since then) has been ramped up in status from a ministerial-level meeting to a summit, which could see a majority of Africa’s 54 heads of state attend in Egoli.

The focus of discussions is expected to centre around furthering Africa’s industrialisation and the modernisation of the continent’s agriculture industry.

It will be interesting to see if “home ground” advantage will prove significant — if it will embolden African leaders to actively pursue conversations with their counterparts around specific solutions tailor-made for their realities.

The Brookings Institution, in a paper on the upcoming Focac, urges African leaders to take a more “vocal” approach. “China has stated a willingness to enhance and improve its input in African capacity building, such as human resources development, technical assistance and technological transfers,” says the institution.

“The commitment indeed presents an opportunity for African countries to wisely strategise and demand China deliver the investments they need most, including on manufacturing industries and job creation.” One of the ways the Chinese have been able to transform its economy is that they understood the need for building and growing a skilled human resources base and that having a huge manufacturing base had its economic limitations.

It is also adept at “copycat-ing” successful products and services and selling these items by the truckload at home — it helps having a vast market to pitch to.

So where and how does Africa fit into China’s future plans? A young African delegate at a China Africa forum in Yiwu this year cautioned of an Africa becoming over-reliant on “big brother China” and allowing for complacency to stunt our self-development.

Agenda 2063 is the AU’s blueprint to turn around Africa’s fortunes and given the extensive Chinese investment already on the continent, time will tell if they stay the course. “We can supply the hardware, you’ve to supply the software,” has been a common refrain when the China-Africa relationship is discussed here.

A closer look at the history of the Tazara railway (which links Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam to Zambia’s Kapiri Mposhi) — China’s first big overseas project it undertook in the 1970s — provides an apt example of a project that has been in steady decline due to neglect. Today, the railway is a non-profit-making, dwindling and unreliable service beset by labour issues.

In a world that will continue to be defined by an us-and-them-driven agenda, developing nations would do well to try to find common ground, especially around issues of education and economy. Focac provides one such opportunity.

Let’s hope decisions made at the summit are for the good of the 2.5 billion people calling Africa and China home and not just the few mandated to speak on their behalf.

l Yunus Kemp is the Deputy Editor of the Cape Argus. This is the final instalment of Beijing Calling. He has been on a 10-month scholarship with China Africa Press Centre. — Wires/Business Reporter.