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China's presence in Africa has been rendered as something new and previously non-existent
in the present discussion on China in Africa. Its existence in the continent as a donor and a trading partner extends over a century. Disengagement in the 1980s and early 1990s could be the reason of the mistaken perception. China expanded its foreign policy arena in the 1950s from Asia and the
Communist bloc to include Africa. One reason for this was that China from a
foreign policy perspective, consider that they sat in the same boat as several African countries,
that they were developing countries and had a common destiny in the showdown with colonialism and post-colonialism. They also had common enemies, basically with the European colonial powers, and with the US too, who have had a conflict with them since the Korean war as early as 1950.
China's previous involvement in the continent included, support for liberation African movements both in financial and technical areas including food, medicine, weapons and military training of
guerrilla leaders. China’s key policy objective however was to secure African support in the UN seat and security of Taiwan. This was quite imperative for China because Beijing considered Taiwan as a province that that had broken loose from China in 1949, and since Taiwan was already
active in Africa, it became the target for China to pull the province out of the continent.
The benefits to China through their involvement in Africa both in politics and diplomacy could be noticed through the vote on China’s seat in the United nations. Quite a number of years there has been an increasing number of African states that support China not Taiwan , and in 1971 China succeed in gathering sufficient number of African voices to achieve a majority in the UN and become
recognized as the legal regulatory representative for China in the UN. There was however an opposition from the US and Taiwan.
With their presence in Africa, China also wanted to show that there exist an alternative to western aid efforts. Chinese assistance was to demonstrate solidarity with African regimes and willingness to make sacrifices in particular through assistance from its scarce
resources. China has resorted into expanding its former Marxist ideology, which had a
great persuasive influence and attractiveness among other things through material and
military support to African partners. China’s involvement with US and Russia during the cold war as main enemies, and engagement in Africa should create a facade against the superpowers. This had both a negative and positive impact on Africa as an alliance partner and a battleground in China's attempt to avoid international isolation and raise its stature in the continent. China however did not have the financial resources that could match the Soviet Union and Western
world aid, which had an influence on their ability to just create an alternative to
competitors. This implied that Africa was dominated by the western donors and still continues to do so.
The underlying principles behind China-Africa relationship is seen through personal interest blended with development motives. The First Forum for China-Africa cooperation (FOCAC) a meeting that was held in Beijing in 2000 and the second one in 2003 outlined economic co-operations, areas of culture, environment, health and education. These basic approaches outlined new ways of involvement as articulated by China.
Another fundamental element of China’s expansion in the continent lies in the foreign Aid that secures their position with most governments, in order to tap resources and build strong diplomatic partnership. Building schools and hospitals have also cemented the contracts between China and most of African governments .
The relationship becomes stronger with some African governments in areas of military partnership and arms trade especially among the war torn states that experienced arms embargo due to political instability and human rights abuses. In Sudan, Human rights watch reported that China supplied Sudan with ammunitions, tanks, helicopters ,fighter aircrafts and anti-tank mines.

China support for authoritarian regimes.

China’s involvement in Africa’s conflict ridden states is not something new. The civil wars in Congo, Darfur and Zimbabwe rekindles the memories of China’s involvement in this war torn countries with its business as usual approach. This support comes in different ways; China uses veto power in the security council to block the liberal west’s efforts to impose sanctions, it gives unconditional economic aid, it invests, it sells arms and it trades. To some extent, it does all these with its narrow political and economical self interest in mind; it needs the resources that these dictatorships can provide, it profits from trade with these countries and it profits from banding together with these countries to form alliance against the US. While In 2001, some of the experts mandated by the UNSC pointed at the indirect involvement of China in the exploitation of forests in the eastern part of Congo. In 2002, accusations were pointed on China by an NGO (Global Witness ) on sponsoring the violence in Liberia because they were buying hard woods from warlords. With the incessant civil unrest and abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe by their government, US and most of the EU member states froze most the elite’s assets and even imposed a visa ban on them. China on the other hand developed close economic ties with Mugabe’s regime. With the break of the worst humanitarian crisis in march 2003, China could still show its mighty presence with China National Petroleum corporation (CNPC), becoming a big market player in Sudan’s oil industry.

Understanding China’s African policy creates some hurdles for the reason that it’s undertaken on a strict bilateral base, though at times on public regional diplomacy setting (FOCAC) and sometimes on a multilateral level. Indeed, this move has underscored China’s relations with some of Africa’s leaders that would be abandoned in the international stage.
China’s African diplomacy is creating a lot of friction in the west. Primarily, because the Beijing policy separates their economic policy from the governance issues in the region. The latest case of Sudan is an example where China’s diplomacy in Africa is being questioned. China has however increased its economic ties with the Sudanese government at a time when most of the western investors are encouraged to stop trading with Sudan due to the ongoing conflict. Despite the International pressure, China has pumped in more money into developing fossil fuel industries.

Petroleum and Natural Resources

A comprehensive report released by OECD on China and India in 2006, on their role in relation to Africa clearly shows that China's huge hunger for natural resources has an enormous
impact on Africa, which is the primary exporter. Africa’s exports to China
started accelerating around 2000, and have since risen to an annual growth rate of 56%.
China's extremely fast-growing economy is a key driver in their foreign policy. A flourishing national economy, speedy urbanization, augmented export processing, and the Chinese insatiable craving for cars is increasing the country's Demand for oil and natural gas, industrial and construction materials, foreign capital and technology. Twenty years ago, China was East Asia's largest oil exporter. Now it is the world's second largest importer. China has a growing need for energy resources, if they want to maintain economic growth. This hunt has landed Chinese firms to Africa. China get about 30 percent of their oil from Africa, and wants to increase this figure in years to come.

The current expansion of China’s influence in Africa merits a number of responses. First, the Chinese ventures in Africa should be closely monitored. Secondly, China should be engaged in matters of transparency and accountability in the continent especially in the energy sector. In addition, these areas of China’s influence in Africa should be re-evaluated; Energy and human rights policies -should they follow a common global standards or prioritize their domestic interests which is a bigger concern; a combination of commercial and political motives- many Chinese companies operating in Africa are state owned- conform to WTO practices?; and tied aid to Africa- keeping the state of mixing foreign aid, foreign policy and business objectives at the existing stage or speed up the process in Africa.


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