Today China is trying to become a superpower and is extending its influence all around the world. We can see that China is deepening its relationship with Africa. Afro-Sino relationship is something that needs to be deeply looked upon. China is having cultural, linguistic and financial impact on Africa. It is observed that a large section of population in African continent can speak Mandarin. Kenya by 2020 is officially planning to introduce Mandarin in its curriculum. Another notable event that took place in Zimbabwe due to increasing Chinese teaching schools led to the Zambian parliament meeting to decide if they should make Mandarin as its official national language.
Also the number of Confucius institutes in Africa is rising drastically. In 2002 there were zero such institutes but by 2018 there are 54 such institutes with South Africa having the highest concentration of 5 such institutes followed by Kenya with 4. These are partly Chinese government funded institutions that act as forum for the Africans to know the Chinese culture. The reasons that African government gives for the promotion of Chinese language and culture in its land is for the future African generation whose employment are guaranteed by China.
When we look from the economic perspective we can see that China and Africa are one of the strongest trading partners in today’s global market with a steady increase of Chinese investment in the African continent. The Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is a dais for the Africa and Chinese to discuss their economic matters. The Fund provided by the FOCAC is termed as China-Africa Development Fund (CAD) and it is funded by the Chinese Development Bank. And this fund is helping Africa a lot to meet its Millennium Developmental Goals. There is also a clear picture of the increasing debt that Africa owes to China, debt increasing from $1 billion in 2002 to $148 billion in 2018. The amount that China gives to Africa is tagged under different names like official development aid, export, commercial credit etc but it is never clear. But with this increasing debt is a high probability of the African continent falling into the debt trap of the Chinese.
The primary reasons we can observe for China increasing its ties with Africa may be because of the increasing need for raw material along with the expansion of the economic bases. Africa is a nation rich in minerals and resources like diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum etc. So Africa can act as raw material source. Also China itself can see that Africa is a continent where it is easily being able to influence its power so these investments China makes in Africa’s infrastructure and other sectors can benefit from it. Another reason may be because of the geo-strategic location of Africa. So increasing China’s influence over Africa can give China an edge over the geo politics of that region. China already being a big power in Asia can now start to influence other nations and continents. So this Afro-Sino relationship acts as a pathway to super power.
But on closely observing we can notice that there are a lot of negatives for this Afro Sino relationship. There is a cross cultural relation between both the countries but it’s mostly one way cultural flow from China to Africa. Also there is a doubt whether these economic developments the Chinese bringing in the African continent is going to really benefit the normal African population or if it’s going to come in the African’s cost. Also the resources of the African land are being exploited by the Chinese. African government needs to careful about the over indebtedness of Africa towards china.
But China claims that it’s doing all this in order to help Africa to develop.