China and the U.S. in Africa

I’m at the Chinua Achebe Colloquium on Africa at Brown this weekend.  I thought this session on “China and the United States in Africa:  Cooperation or Confrontation” would be of particular interest:

• Robert Rotberg, Harvard:  Chinese goods and traders are ubiquitous in Africa, Chinese growth is Africa’s great hope but Chinese human rights record in Africa is appalling.  China’s focus is access to resources:  trying to convince Khartoum and Juba to settle pipeline issues (which is a good thing), helping with the Zimbabwe crackdown on protests.  Chinese and Americans in Africa have different agendas and will have to find a mutual accommodation.
• Walter Carrington, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria:  China offers trade and aid without onerous Western conditions.  But United States also is there for its own interests, and it was indifferent to moral considerations throughout the Cold War.  U.S. business would gladly see Washington behave the way Beijing does.  Africom assures access to African oil supplies.  We should avoid competition with China, which behaves like the capitalists we hoped they would one day become.
• James Hentz, VMI:  Strategic framework is important:  either realist, in which China challenges the U.S. (power transition model) and tries to deny U.S. resources, especially oil, metals; or liberal, in which growing trade and commerce is a good thing, Chinese construction of infrastructure benefits other powers as well.  China and U.S. both have huge stakes in stability in Africa, but China does not like American advocacy of democracy.  Chinese will want good governance and transparency in Africa, but not American-style democracy.
• Scott D. Taylor, Georgetown:  U.S. and China so far moving along parallel tracks.   How do Africans view the two?  China viewed favorably in most countries.  Even in Zambia, China has traction.  Views of China are approaching the highly positive levels of views of the U.S., which are slipping because of Africom, hunt for Lord’s Resistance Army, use of drones in Somalia, reduction of PEPFAR funding, toppling of Qaddafi.  Anti-U.S. sentiment is growing, to the benefit of the Chinese.
• Omer Ismail, Enough!  China and the U.S. compete for resources and markets.  The approaches are different:  China leads with the state, the U.S. with the market.  China has now passed the U.S. in trade with Africa, in corporate deals with Africa, in percentage of oil imports from Africa, supplying weapons to all sides.  Possible areas for cooperation:  agriculture, security and diplomacy, and environment.  What is in it for the people of Africa?  That is what U.S. and China should focus on.  There is a real possibility for cooperation. 
  
• Deborah Brautigan, American University:  China represents a big challenge that echoes for Americans the Cold War and Japanese economic competition.  It is a developing country with low labor and environmental standards.  Chinese foreign policy emphasizes mutual benefit and non-interference.  But China is changing rapidly, we often exaggerate Chinese activities in Africa and have little understanding what they are actually doing.  Chinese credit practices can be good because they guarantee that the Chinese get what they pay for, which is better than much Western foreign assistance has done.

Overall message:  some competition is inevitable, but the Chinese role in Africa is already more positive that many think (finance, infrastructure) and more like U.S. private sector behavior than we like to admit.  There is a negative side:  supporting unworthy rulers, use of veto at the UN, Chinese racial attitudes, and company exploitation of diamonds in Zimbabwe.  But Chinese are evolving in a direction that may allow more cooperation on Africa in the UN and in an Africa that is increasingly democratic and resistant to exploitation.