President Xi Jinping's visit to Africa, to attend the first Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit held on that continent, indicates the enormous importance China attaches to relations with Africa. Indeed Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated China saw links with Africa as the "foundation of foundations" of its foreign diplomacy.

China's relations with Africa go back more than half a century, but greatly changed in form over the time due to China's economic growth since adopting "reform and opening up" policies in 1978. Analyzing different stages of China's relations with Africa clarifies the context of President Xi Jinping's visit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in Pretoria, South Africa, Dec. 3, 2015. [Xinhua]

The first stage of China-Africa relations centred on politics. China supported Africa's struggle for decolonization and then against racist southern Africa regimes. In some cases this involved economic aid – most iconically the TANZAM railway opened in 1975, and constructed by China at a cost of $500 million, to break the transport dependence of African states on routes through apartheid South Africa and racist "Rhodesia" (now Zimbabwe). But even such an expensive project primarily had a political intent.

In contrast the second phase of China-Africa relations was primarily economic – focussing on trade which essentially exchanged African commodity exports for China's exports of manufactured goods. From relatively small beginnings in 1978 this developed almost continuously until today, and now China is Africa's most important external economic partner.

This created a "win-win" for both China and Asia. Since the 1970s economic disaster had struck Africa under the impact of Western economic slowdown and the 1973 oil price shock. Average per capita GDP in developing sub-Saharan African countries fell almost continuously for 20 years and by 1994 was 22 percent below the 1974 levels. Underdevelopment and in some cases famine became symbols of Africa.

But after 1994, positively influenced by increasing trade with China, African economies began growing. By 2014 average per capita GDP in sub-Saharan African developing countries was 40 percent above its 1994 level. Africa began to contain some of the world's most rapidly growing economies – per capita GDP in Angola, one of Africa's main exporters to China, rose an annual average 6.3 percent in the decade to 2014.

China also benefitted enormously as it diversified supplies of raw materials away from trouble spots such as the Middle East and dependence on Australia. This initial trade focus was increasingly supplemented by China's investment in Africa in production and infrastructure.

This deepening economic relation has now created the basis for the third stage of China-Africa relations, focusing on "comprehensive partnership." Economically this is characterized not only by strengthening existing forms of interaction but expansion into new sectors.

For example, in Ethiopia a major attempt is being made to establish manufacturing production by Chinese companies. China's own development has reached the point where its wages are too high to compete in sectors such as shoe manufacturing where lower salaries are indispensable for competitiveness. But China's companies possess expertise in such industries as they were crucial to China's own past development. Therefore the economic logic is to use China's investment and expertise in an African country such as Ethiopia which still has lower wages. Ethiopia's own recent economic development is sensational. In the decade to 2014 it experienced annual average per capita GDP growth of 7.8 percent – a rate equivalent to Asia's "miracle" economies.

Banking is a further example. Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist who coined the term "BRIC" (Brazil, Russia, India, China), expressed puzzlement as to why China helped transform this into 'BRICS' by including South Africa – a smaller economy than the other four. China's logic was that South Africa was important itself and a key link to Africa. From this came the BRICS development bank, a financial institution created simultaneously with China's launching of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Another key development is China's infrastructure aid to Africa's economic integration. Even the largest African economies, Nigeria and South Africa, are too small markets to allow internationally competitive production in the new era of continental economies – economic blocs in North America, Europe and Asia. Only an African wide economy is large enough for individual countries to achieve their own optimum economic development, and creating this requires infrastructure spanning the continent. China's aid to this parallels its own "Belt and Road" initiative in Asia.

These developments exemplify in Africa a more general geopolitical trend which, with some simplification, may be summarized as "Chinese banks or U.S. bombers?" China's huge annual savings, now $4.8 trillion versus the US's $2.7 trillion, creates financial firepower the U.S. cannot match – but the U.S. possesses global military superiority. This combination creates in Africa a certain "mirror image" of the old Cold War. In that the USSR supplied military hardware to regimes such as the 1980s Ethiopian Dergue but could not create economic benefits on the scale of countries allied to the U.S. Today China boosts Africa's economic development while the U.S. has centred activity on building up a military Africa Command (AFRICOM) created in 2008.

This impact of China's relation with Africa now spreads far beyond the economy. One very public manifestation is in media. China Central Television several years ago began a major effort to expand African coverage, setting up African bureaus, hiring journalists etc. Confirming that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," U.S. TV channels CNN and Bloomberg have now sharply increased Africa coverage. This development benefits Africa as it increases global interest in the continent.

These trends form the background to Xi Jinping's visit. The FOCAC summit's theme is "China-Africa Progressing Together: Win-Win Co-operation for Common Development." Projects to be discussed include the regional "three networks" – high-speed rail, highways and aviation. China is expected to announce a loan package as in previous years.

Xi Jinping already outlined the international framework for China's relations with Africa in his speech at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly earlier this year: "We firmly support greater representation and say of developing countries, especially African countries, in the international governance system."

Xi Jinping's visit therefore highlights one of world's clearest examples that the concept "win-win" is not merely warm words but a reality – both Africa and China have benefitted enormously from their relations.

The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://china.org.cn/opinion/johnross.htm

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