Now that the Forum for China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) from 4th to 6th September 2024, is concluded, it is a good opportunity to visit the outcome of the big gathering, which was under the gaze of the world and in particular, those of the competing West for the resources of Africa.
The stark picture presented was the picture, where one man representing some 1.5 billion people, President Xi Ping and some 55 head of states and delegates representing a similar population of some 1.6 billion people, faced each other. It looked more like a classroom of students and a teacher!
The Chinese President, indeed, pledged to provide “poor” Africa with a financial support of some US$ 50 billion of credits and other aid (food and military) of some 280 million according to a CNN report on Thursday September 5th, 2024.
It was a large gathering and allowed African leaders to meet each other in addition to meeting the Chinese leader. It was a historical meeting as it brought together the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the President of Somalia into the same room once again, although they did not have, as reports indicate todate, a face-to-face meeting.
The two countries are at each other’s throats as a result of Ethiopia’s aggression against Somalia with respect to its attempt to curve out a part of Somalia’s territory and sea for itself under the false proposition that it cannot live or thrive without having its own sea.
Economic growth statistics indicate that Ethiopia’s economic growth was much higher and better in the years it was a landlocked country (average 7% from 1994 to 2023) than when it had access to the Red Sea through Eritrea which it controlled for some thirty years of the last century, when its economic growth reportedly averaged about 2.35% (1962 to 1993) according to the World Bank Group.
The irony is that most Ethiopians do not want to have continuous wars with Somalia but want to have peace and stability in the region, but the Ethiopian government, out of its financial need and hence predicament, is being used by others to snatch a part of the Somali sea. They know not that Ethiopia, is itself another predator that would not need these financiers, whence they help it finance the port proposition on Somali waters.
The Somali Peninsula is a difficult proposition for any party and would only perpetuate the miseries of the populations of the region, without ever being taken by anyone other than Somali people. They would defend their turf to death. Ethiopians should know this more than any other party and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed should not have embarked on this mission impossible, despite his illusions of Ethiopian grandeur and himself as the new emperor.
The gathering was, indeed, the 24th between the continent and China and reflects China’s intense attention to resources from Africa, which it needs for its giant economic machine. The relationship survived the global economic disruptions, the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the many wars currently taking place across the world, even in Europe. It was a testimony that countries could still sit down together and discuss business in peace, although their differing weights was obvious.
Although it is often touted that China is burdening the continent with debts, the world of today lives on credit and there is nothing really wrong with borrowing. It is how a country uses or abuses the debts it acquires and that depends on individual countries and the governance of those countries. At least, the Chinese do provide financing for projects deemed necessary for the development of the continent in terms of infrastructure – roads, rail, bridges, and ports, and they build them, themselves.
The African countries could calibrate the price of their resources to the financial resources made available to them, reducing the corruption levels of many countries in the continent and/or foregoing the overstaying in power which is usually the root cause of all of Africa’s problems.
Democratic processes and equality under the law and supremacy of law should have been the key mover of Africa’s affairs, but alas, this is not the case. Neither the West nor China will do that for them and hence even the US$ 50 something billion United States Dollars, which China promised will not change one iota of the continent’s development, if the continent’s leaders did not put their trust on their people and not on the tribe and clan or close family relationships alone.
It is certain that a large part of the promised funds will be received but will be rechanneled to numbered accounts of many of the leaders of the continent outside the continent. However, at least, there will be roads and rail that will change the landscape of the continent in many ways and make many communities thrive through the new avenues created to market their products and services.
China has benefitted from its relations with the continent which is included in its global BRI project or the Belt and Road Initiative – a grand scheme where it deploys its excessive funds and savings to expand its trade and build relations far beyond China with other countries of the world. China knows that it must compete in a world dominated by forces that were built over the past several hundred years.
For the Horn of Africa States corner, the Chinese will continue to stay and perhaps develop its relations more. They will have to live with maintaining relations with the four countries of the region which seem to be drifting apart instead of coming closer together. How they will do this, will certainly be complex and we live this for the Chinese genius to figure it out.
China knows of the resources of the region, its geostrategic importance, its capacity to be a source of food, its accessibility through its large maritime space and aerospace, and should, therefore, work to sow peace and stability in the region. This would greatly reflect on its global contribution to the building of sanity in the insane world of today.