China-Africa: The Other side of China in Africa
The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yang Jiechi will visit Rwanda on Wednesday as a part of an African tour that includes Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. As China is one of Rwanda’s closest foreign partners, this visit is mainly seen as a confirmation that China is interested in strengthening its relationship with the small central African state.
China is one of the most important development partners for Rwanda, and has funded several projects in different public sectors – education, heath, agriculture, medical care – in the last 15 years. Rwanda has also been recently included in the list of African “Approved Destination Status” states where Chinese citizens can go as tourists without having difficulties in receiving the authorization to leave China. Moreover, Rwanda is a part of a China-Africa Cooperation agreement that allows tax free entry for Rwandan products exported to China (the agreement is often known as the Special Preferential Tariff Treatment.)
For all means and purposes, this visit is only a proof of intention on behalf of the Chinese state, an insurance of the fact that China wants to have sustainable partners in Africa regardless of the size of the countries or their political influence. In other words, it’s a reconfirmation of the long standing relationship between the two states. And I’m sure it is at least partly well intended. After all, Rwanda has certain privileges that most African countries are craving for. However, the fact that Rwanda has obtained the above mentioned deals with China because of its good international politics or because it deserves it, it’s a sheer illusion.
The only reason why Rwanda has all these benefits is because it cannot pose any threats or inconveniences to China. The last ten years have been marked by several suggestions at the international level that China should allow imports on items other than raw materials from Africa, that it should engage in a bilateral relationship that will be a win-win relationship for the parters involved. As far as I am concerned, China is using Rwanda as such an example. We look at Rwanda and see that it gained all these rights and we think and hope that other countries – Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa or Congo – will receive the same treatment.
False!
Rwanda is a very small country, with no population pressure (given by the fact that almost one million people were killed in 1994), with no significant products that can be exported to China (Rwanda can only export only tea and coffee) and with little touristic attractions (Kigali has little to offer tourists, while some national reservations and the city of Gisenyi can somewhat be considered touristic attractions). In other words, giving all these privileges to Rwanda won’t actually change anything. It would look like a good example of mutual friendship, but in practice it is just another blow in the wind.
Let’s think: how many Chinese will buy Rwandan tea or coffee?
So what is happening here is that China is emphasizing its role as a partner for development and as a friend of Africa in a tour in which some of the visited countries only have the illusion that they are partners of the Chinese government (in fact out of the countries that will be visited in the following week only South Africa can say it has a mutual relationship with China, but that can also be debated!).
Does China have anything else to gain out of this visit? Of course it does.
The visit will be widely covered by the Chinese press. Chinese citizens will find out more about Rwanda – that it is a small Central African countries, relatively conflict-free, where business opportunities are available – and some of them will even emigrate there and start new businesses.
Of course we should not think of China as this perverse power that is trying to ship Chinese to Africa, which is naive at most, but we should certainly understand that there is a chance Chinese citizens will suddenly discover Rwanda on the map and maybe make arrangements to move to Rwanda.
Why is this such a big problem?
Well, let’s look at Lesotho, a country that is somewhat comparable to Rwanda, where Chinese immigrants that moved to Lesotho in the last ten years have simply forced local entrepreneurs out of business. There is nothing that can convince me that this might not be the case with Rwanda as well, especially since Rwanda lacks a regulatory system that will “filtrate” who comes to Rwanda and who doesn’t. (I visited Rwanda last summer and was able to get a visa at the border even if Romanians are normally required to apply for a visa in advance.)
Coming back to the original question of what China has to gain out of this visit to Rwanda, we should also consider that China is trying to strengthen its position in the United Nations, that by offering exclusive deals it might convince the remaining four African state that recognize Taiwan to shift their recognition to China (Swaziland, Gambia, Burkina Faso, and Sao Tome and Principe, all except Burkina Faso being countries that are quite similar to Rwanda in many ways) and that China can pose once again as the Eastern friend who’s there to help at all times.
While China is offering more and more exclusive deals to various African states, it is generally received with great enthusiasm by most African leaders. I will never say that the best alternative is not to engage China at all in bilateral agreements, as China is giving a lot of money to projects that would normally not be financed by Western institutions, but I recommend more caution. African politics are as complex as Chinese politics, so both should be respected and observed carefully
(http://www.africanloft.com)