China in Africa

ADDRESS OF FOUNDING PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SEYCHELLES, SIR JAMES R. MANCHAM, DELIVERED ON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH 2007, AT THE WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA.

No longer in inwardly-focused nation, Chin has over recent years expanded its influence abroad and is acting on the international diplomatic stage with a new-found confidence anchored in its growing economic might.

What does China want from the rest of the world, and how will its power shape the 20th century, is a question of everybody’s mind?
China is a new factor in global politics. No global architecture can be constructed without it. At the beginning of 2007, it had accumulated more than US$1 trillion of foreign exchange reserves. China is the world’s second largest importer of oil. Before 2010, it will be the world’s largest exporter of goods. It is comfortably the world’s second-largest military power, with the Pentagon believing that China’s defense expenditure is up to three times more than the US$30 billion officially declared.

China has played on the African diplomatic theater for a long time. The first diplomatic activities were focused on the ongoing issue of Taiwan, which had styled itself as the Republic of China as opposed to the government in Beijing, which was itself known as the People’s Republic of China. Otherwise, China, the Beijing one, has no “colonial baggage” to carry with respect to its development of political and economic ties with Africa.

Over recent years, China has immensely benefited from the process of globalization which has so far had mostly negative effects on the economy of many African nations with a net result that many African nations today are poorer than they were at the time of independence though their countries are potentially rich in natural resources.

China needs these resources to sustain its economic growth and energy requirements and Africa needs China’s investment and commodities. These factors provide excellent backbone for the promotion of a relationship which the Chinese argue is based on “reciprocity and mutual interest.”
Furthermore, China’s commitment to non-intervention means that it does not inquire into the internal affairs of others. As a 2005 report by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations noted – “China’s aid and investments are attractive to African leaders precisely because they come with no conditionality related to governance, physical property, or other concerns of Western donors.” When in 2004, an international monetary loan to Angola was held up due to suspected corruption, China came up overnight with US$2 billion in credit. The Mugabe government in Zimbabwe would have fallen a long while ago if it was not receiving constant financial support from Beijing. There is here certainly an area of great concerns to those who are interested in promoting “democracy” in the world generally and in Africa in particular.

Mr Chairman, it is tempting to dismiss the many recent diplomatic successes achieved by China as the mere result of bureaucratic efficiency on the part of the Chinese. To do so is to underestimate China’s growing mastery of global diplomacy and Beijing’s adroitness in leveraging economic might for broader political goals.

In what is arguably Beijing’s biggest diplomatic bash today – the Chinese leaders rolled out the red carpet on 4th and 5th of November, 2006, for 45 African nations, charming their leaders with songs, dance and billions in bills and business contracts. The event was certainly a testimony of the influence and goodwill China enjoys in Africa today.

Who are the real beneficiaries of this new Africa-China relationship? China has for long now projected the view that China is the largest developing country in the world and that Africa is a continent of developing nations. Hence, according to the Chinese, the two sides have common factors for fruitful collaboration. However, this view appears to be losing credibility as China’s immense industrial and manufacturing success becomes internationally acknowledged.

China makes it a point to remind African nations of the support it brought to them during their struggle for independence.
In his opening address at the November 2006 summit, President Hu Jintao said – “This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationships between China and African nations. While vast oceans separate China and Africa, the friendship between our two people has endured over a long time and today stands out as being overtly strong and vigorous.” The Chinese President then spelled out four principles which should underline Sino-African collaboration: (1) friendship (2) equality (3) mutual support (4) shared development of potentials.

The Chinese President also said that Africa is also deserving of a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations. In the social area, the Chinese President said that no stone should remain unturned in the common endeavour of eradicating poverty in Africa and that China in Africa should collaborate within the U.N. framework with respect to issues like human rights and the fight against terrorism.

 On the question of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the two parties expressed common adherence to a “nuclear-free Africa polity.”

In this highly-impressive and successful summit, the Chinese and African leaders decided that economic cooperation will be given priority of consideration over the next three years, with the Chinese leader declaring that China has agreed in the first instance to allocate some US$40 billion for investment in commerce, infrastructure and energy. He also declared that the Chinese had decided to write off billions of dollars of debt owed by African nations.

President James Michel of Seychelles was one of the 45 leaders who went to Beijing in November 2006 and received very special treatment. That, of course, was not surprising because his ruling Seychelles People’s Progressive Front Party, has been in a sisterly relationships with the Communist Party of China ever since the birth of party politics in Seychelles in the early 1960s. But what was surprising and made international headlines was the official visit to Seychelles by the President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao, on the 8th and 9th of February this year. Following his visit of eight favored nations on the African continent, Hu’s visits reaffirmed negotiations for raw materials, energy supplies and assistance, debt forgiveness and negotiations aimed at securing China’s quest for global positioning. Thus, to put it another way, to add another piece to the puzzle of replacing the United States as the only superpower in the world.

China needs a military base in the Indian Ocean. It is considered that Seychelles has the best global position for a need in Africa and the Indian Ocean region. Briefly, the Chinese President’s visit to Seychelles was not the PRC’s first step in that direction but a culmination of events and a finale of sorts.

A confirmation of Seychelles’ strategic dimension was projected in a special report for limited circulation issued following the Falkland Islands war by U.S. Admiral Hanks, who was a Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Washington D.C. after retiring as Naval Chief-of-Staff commanding the U.S. forces which were based in Bahrain in the 1960s.

Hanks argued that the British became victorious in the Falkland Islands war against Argentina because of the control of Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic, between Brazil and West Africa. There they were able to make use of an enormous American-built runway to launch their attacks against Argentina’s Navy and other enemy targets.

Hanks argued that every small Island in the ocean could be considered like “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” An Island could be utilized as a launching pad for rockets at enemies’ territory within its reach. Taking into account the fact that the Republic of Seychelles 110 Islands, are scattered over a wide surface of the Western Indian Ocean, which includes a vital oil route and taking into account that important oil producing Nations are within rocket striking distance, the geo-political importance of Seychelles cannot be underestimated.

After World Way II, the Western Indian Ocean was more or less a western lake with the British in Tricomalee (Sri Lanka), in the Maldives, in Mauritius, in Seychelles, in Mombasa (Kenya) whilst the French were in Madagascar, in La Réunion, in the Comoros and in Djibouti – in the Horn of Africa. The decision of the British to pull out of East of Suez, was taken against the background of an agreement that the U.S. should fill the vacuum that was to be left behind.

Thus, did the British change the status of the Chagos archipelago which was a dependency of Mauritius on the even of the latter’s independence, into a new sort of colony which they styled the “British Indian Ocean Territory”, after transferring all in the inhabitants of Chagos to Mauritius for re-settlement. It is there that the Americans were allowed to build the most modern military air force and naval base on the Island of Diego Garcia, which lies 600 miles east of the Seychelles.

This coral atoll has been turned into a vital U.S. strategic base capable of accommodating B-52 strategic bombers. Yet, if the U.S. military strategists had their choice, the U.S. base would have been situated in the Seychelles, which is spread over 200,000sq miles of ocean. The original idea was for the base to be built on the Seychelles Island of Aldabra, which is considered the most strategic place in the zone, closer to the Horn of Africa.

However, the British and the Americans shifted further eastward to Diego Garcia following intense pressure form the conservationists in Britain and the U.S., who wanted at all costs to preserve the quality of life of the booby birds and the giant tortoises who are the sole inhabitants of Aldabra.

At the end of the Cold War, U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, decided to close down the U.S. Embassy in Seychelles, on the pretext that savings were necessary within her State Department budget, if she was to open new embassies in Eastern European Nations which had formed part of the Soviet bloc. This was indeed a penny-wise pound foolish decision on the part of the only superpower in the world.

For more than 30 years during the Cold war, the U.S. operated a vital Tracking Station which “spied” over the USSR from Mahe, Seychelles. It could be argued that had there been physical confrontation USA/USSR – the Island of Mahe in Seychelles could have been a prime target for destruction. It can therefore also be argued that the Seychelles was a significant contributor to the ultimate defeat of international communism. It was therefore most unfortunate that the Seychelles was to be one of the first victims of the U.S. emergence as the only superpower in the world. It certainly sent across the message that the U.S. was only interested in their “national interest” and not in a foreign policy based on respect for the sovereignty of Nations however big or small.

On the day of the arrival of President Hu Jintao in Seychelles, the ‘Seychelles Nation’ published an article about the opening of a mortuary on the island of Praslin – mostly built by U.S. navy personnel, at the cost of US$25,000. That same day, the British High Commissioner had presented the government with a check for $2,000 for the campaign against mosquitoes. The first thing the Chinese President did on his arrival was to present the Seychelles government with a cheque for US$20 million and at the same time made promises for more assistance and investment in several areas. Since then, China has assisted the Seychelles in opening up an Embassy in Beijing. And on the 13th of September, 2003, the ‘Xin Hua’ news service announced that the Chinese Defense Minister, Cao gang Huan, had stated that China wished to strengthen military ties with Seychelles. At the same time, Beijing announced a third allocation of US$50 million for the building of an electrical power plant on the south of Mahe.”