BUILDING A ZONE OF INFLUENCE IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH

SINO-AFRICAN COOPERATION IN THE CONTEXT OF CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY

Elzbieta KiziukiewiczMSc candidate in Asian StudiesCentre for East and South-East Asian StudiesLund University

CHINA IN AFRICA IS ABOUT• Resource extraction• Unfair import – export balance• Destroying of domestic industries• Neo-colonialism

…BUT WHAT IF NOT ONLY?

CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY

• Indirect confrontation

• Avoidance of war

• Mutual benefit and reciprocity in international relations

• Domestically embedded foreign policy objectives:

• Internal political stability• Sovereign security• Territorial integrity• National unification• Sustainable economic

and social development

GLOBAL SOUTH

One Belt One Road

AIIB

HOW IS CHINA DOING IT?Econom

ic growth

• Achieved in the world guided by liberal principles and practices.

Economic

power

Political power

• Foreign direct investments, free trade agreements, joint ventures, and alike.

• Building reciprocal and loyal partnerships with developing countries.

• Mutual benefit• Reciprocity• Non-interference

LIBERALISM• State’s interests and determinants of their actions are multiple.• Power alone does not determine international relations.• States desire and are willing to learn cooperation.• A win-win situation is possible in international cooperation. • Liberty as a value above all else.• Emphasis on human agency in effecting changes. • Interdependence and world society makes boundaries between

states permeable.• Universal community of humankind transcends identification with,

and membership of, the nation-state community.

CHINA’S IMAGINED (SELECTIVE) LIBERALISM• State’s interests and determinants of their actions are

multiple.• Power alone does not determine international relations.• States desire and are willing to learn cooperation.• A win-win situation is possible in international cooperation. • Liberty as a value above all else.• Emphasis on human agency in effecting changes. • Interdependence and world society make boundaries between

states permeable.• Universal community of humankind transcends identification with,

and membership of, the nation-state community.

GLOBALIZED LIBERALISM

• State’s sovereignty at the core. • International society of free states. • Individualism of anthropomorphised states.• Freedom of the state and not in the state.

Hughes (1995)

SUDAN• One of the first countries to

recognize the PRC. • Example of cooperation with a

rogue regime. • China offering support against,

or maybe because of, exclusion from the international society.

• Double-standards presented by the West in the Darfur crisis.

CHINA’S STRATEGY IN SUDAN• 1991 Gulf War• Chinese support resulted in Sudan becoming the third

largest weapon manufacturer in Africa. • Prioritizing economic gains over political and security issues

– by China. • Adhering to its principle of non-interference for as long as

possible – until “losing face” in Beijing Olympics 2008. • Responsiveness – deploying a Darfur envoy and convincing

Sudanese government to accept a peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

TACKLING SOUTH SUDAN• (Not so) Easy task. • Engaging in bilateral talks –

unprecedented case for China. • “Flexigemony” (Carmody & Taylor,

2010):• Economic gains as a priority.• Combination of political, economic and military

levers used in securing access to raw materials.

• Direct economic power used instead the military.

• Strengthening sovereignty of partner countries.• High-level state visits.

IS IT ALL ABOUT OIL…?

• Engaging in the construction projects not connected to the oil industry:• Friendship Hall• Presidential palace• Hospital• Textile and pharmaceutical factories• Weapon assembly factory

YES, BUT…

ZAMBIA

• “All-weather”, almost undisturbed friendship.

• Political basis for engagement.

• 1970-1975 – TAZARA railway construction project.

CHINA’S TOUGH LUCK IN ZAMBIA

• Developing Chambishi Multi-Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ).

• Contributing to the industrialization of Zambia and increasing the value of Zambian copper exports.

• Closure of Mulungushi Textile Factory.

• Killings of protesters in Chinese-managed copper mines.

• Popular reception, unrest and resistance.

• China’s mismanagement of the problems.

“Flexipower” (Carmody, 2013) - economic strategy, facilitating win-win situation, results also in tangible

political and strategic outcomes for China.

The case of Michael Sata and presidential elections in 2006 and 2011.

“COME GROW WITH ME”

LEE KUAN YEW

REFERENCES Allison, G. & Blackwill, R.D., 2012. Lee Kuan Yew. The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States and the World. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Carmody, P., (2013). The Rise of BRICS in Africa. The Geopolitics of South-South Relations. London: Zed Books.

Carmody, P. & Taylor, I., 2010. “Flexigemony and force in China’s resource diplomacy in Africa: Sudan and Zambia compared.” Geopolitics, 20(15), pp. 1-20.

Hughes, C.R., 1995. “China and liberalism globalized”, Millenium: Journal of International Studies, 24(3), pp. 425-445.