The New Times (Kigali)

OPINION

January 24, 2007

Posted to the web January 25, 2007

By Oscar Kimanuka

Kigali

Any comment on China today is bound to draw considerable debate on her growing economic and security influence and dominance at a global level. This article attempts to demonstrate China's rising influence not only in South East Asia, but also at a global level and concludes by acknowledging that her foreign policy is premised on the principles of non-interference, peaceful co-existence with the rest of the world and that her recent emphasis of Africa as a geo-strategically important continent due to her enormous untapped resources, is vitally important for China's industry and also as a market for her products.

China has emerged as a major power in Asia and at a global level owing to her phenomenal economic performance over the last two decades. China's economy has been rising with two digit figures and is today arguably one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Under their founding leader, Mao Zedong from 1949, when the communists staged a revolution and removed the nationalists who retreated to Taiwan where they formed the Republic of China, under Chiang Kai Chek, China has continued to play an important role in international politics.

During the Cold War, from about 1949, after the end of the Second World War, to the end of the Cold War around 1991, China's relations with the rest of the world has been marked by a desire for peaceful co-existence and cooperation and also support for the endeavours of the people of the developing world, and Africa in particular, in their efforts at self-determination and sovereignty. China has, therefore, on one hand pursued policies that are critical to her domestic interests and has opposed the United States hegemonic ambitions in Asia.

China has also on the other hand consistently supported developing countries under the framework of South-South cooperation. In recent times, the geo-strategic importance of Africa to China has been manifested in the increasing cooperation with the continent because it is a source of supply for China's increasingly desperate energy needs and also a market for her manufactured products.

Interestingly, unlike the Western world, China does not insist on pre-conditionalities when giving aid to Africa. Some of the not-so-democratic regimes in Africa and other developing world are benefiting from China's generous aid packages and grants. China's support to Africa also include military pacts that have training and export of arms to countries that range from Angola, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria to Sudan, which today supply more than 50 percent of China's oil requirements.

The Chinese are of the view that while Mao Zedong may have contributed to the country's foundation as a great socialist nation, the real reformer of China and the leader remembered in recent times is Deng Xiao Ping, the diminutive Chinese leader who was persecuted prior to his assumption of power in the late 1970s. Deng was actually saved by Mao's death in 1976. Deng eventually emerged as the undisputed leader of China in 1978. Deng's view was that China's future greatness could only be through her economic prowess and might.

He embarked on a massive economic reform programme throughout the 1980s that laid a firm foundation for the country's economic resurgence through a process of liberalisation of the economy to outside players, who had hitherto been shut out in the cold. Previously under Mao, China was more or less a closed system. Deng created special Economic Zones in Guangdong and Fijian and opened up Shenzhen near Hong Kong. Within no time, and by early 1990s these special Economic Zones were contributing to 40 percent of China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is no wonder, therefore, that in 1993, Guangdong and Fijian, were contributing about USD 176 billion to China's economy.

China has, in addition to her economic rise, pursued foreign policy that opposes the United States hegemonic rise in Asia. And just recently, China conducted an anti-satellite weapons test in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile. Analysts said China's weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as the United States spy satellites. The test, therefore, represented an indirect threat to the US defence systems. And the US National Security Council Spokesman, Gordon Johndroe said in a statement, "the US believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area." Japan, fearful of China's new threats, has also "demanded a full explanation from Beijing". Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also suggested that China's lack of transparency over its military development could trigger suspicions about its motives in the region.

China has consistently pointed out her position on Taiwan as an integral part of mainland China. Her policy, is therefore, rooted in the one China policy. She has gone to the extent of persuading countries in Africa that had diplomatic relations with Taiwan to break them with promises of aid. To date, countries like Gambia, Senegal, Benin and even South Africa have severed relations with Taiwan.

China has diplomatically sought to strengthen her relations with the United States, which is the only other dominant power in East Asia. Part of the reason lay in the fact that there are a lot of the United States investments in China from the US major multinational companies and in addition, the United States has provided China with the most favoured nation's status. China has recently been admitted to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and has improved her trade links with the European Union. However, there are a few hiccups with the EU because of the fear of flooding the European market with Chinese products, especially apparels, which are cheap.

China's foreign policy has also witnessed some warming up with Japan since 1972, when the two previously arch enemies established diplomatic relations. Japan had in 1937 invaded China and had caused considerable atrocities. Japan's imperial designs and her war records have never been forgotten in China. Despite this scar on Japan's history, attempts have been made by the Japanese leaders to strike a rapprochement with China. China has been a leading recipient of Japanese development assistance in the area of technology and has considerable investments from the Japanese. On account of this factor, relations between the two have been on an even keel.

The only worry however has been with Japan's increased military expenditure, especially on her naval defence and her involvement in international peace keeping in as far a field as Iraq. Japan has contributed troops and personnel and financial resources to the first Gulf war in 1990 and as recently as 2003 during the Iraq war. It is, therefore, the military build up of Japan coupled with her close relationship with the US that has seemed to cause anxiety with regard to China's relations with Japan.

China's meteoric rise over the last two decades has enabled her to bolster her military capabilities particularly in the post-Cold war era. With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, China has found no immediate threat from her. In fact China has built up her relations with Russia and recently purchased 100 sophisticated aircraft from Russia, which have been assembled in China.

China's relations with her neighbour, India, has been characterised by a series of tension and cooperation. During the Cold War, and increasingly in the post-Cold War era, China supported and continues to support Pakistan in her military build up against her neighbour, India. It should also be remembered that China and India are the two most populous nations in Asia and together with Japan, constitute the three most powerful nations in Asia. The support China gives to Pakistan is partly to neutralise India's potential threat. The support to Pakistan has been both in diplomatic and defence and includes sale of nuclear technology. This has been one of the ways China has used to balance India's potential threats to China. It should be recalled that India and China have had border disputes some of which culminated in a war in 1965 in which India was defeated.

In summary therefore, China's foreign policy is based on the premise of non-interference, peaceful co-existence with her neighbours and the rest of the world. China has identified Africa as a strategic part of her foreign policy on two angles. Firstly, Africa has enormous resources which China would like to have access to owing to her rapid industrial demands. These resources range from timber, minerals, oil to a host of others. Africa is also a market for China's cheap industrial products. Thirdly, Africa through South-South cooperation is deemed to be a natural ally of the Peoples Republic of China, given their long anti-colonial relations and endeavours to extricate themselves from Western economic domination.

It is in this regard that China has recently signed lucrative deals with a number of African countries without resorting to the usual Western donors' conditionalities. Last year's Economic Forum hosted by Beijing, in which nearly forty African Heads of State and government attended is clear testimony of how far China is willing to go in wooing Africa to her side.

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