Xi is expected to cast China’s security role in Africa as limited and within the framework of global organizations. Speaking Tuesday during the inaugural China-Africa Media Summit held in Cape Town, Radebe told delegates at the gathering that media leaders from both China and Africa have an opportunity to frame win-win solutions that would deepen the positive trajectory of co-operation and development.
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But China’s Commerce Ministry recently admitted that Chinese investments to Africa had fallen by 40 percent in the first half of this year – a move that some analysts attributed to China’s slowing economy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off his five-day Africa tour from Zimbabwe Tuesday, receiving a warm welcome in the African nation that counts China as its biggest foreign investor.
China is Africa’s largest trading partner with trade amounting to $220 billion in 2014, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Beside the cheering crowds, giant billboards said, “We share the same dream”, indicating a deeper friendship and mutual understanding between the two countries.
As the world’s most developed countries and emerging economies are locked in heated talks to cut emission, the trend of developing clean energy has crept into Africa, a continent that is yet to industrialize and has huge energy gaps. The new approach to Africa – a major hot spot for Chinese investment – could illustrate how China tries to strike that balance globally as its business interests expand. Before any development takes place, investors have to carry out intensive environmental impact assessments to ensure that they do not adversely affect the ecology of the region which is also home to the country’s biggest game reserve-Hwange National Park.
After more than a decade of economic crisis, Zimbabwe seems to be bouncing back, with heavy investment in development projects and also infrastructure.
In practice, China has been providing great assistance for the African countries over the past 60 years, especially the sub-Saharan African countries, which are facing most difficulties in health, poverty-relief and social stability.
Wang said China’s shift in focus would address Africa’s two most urgent tasks, accelerating industrialisation and agricultural modernisation.
The sad reality is that Africans in their desperation have chosen to ignore the fact that China has a grand strategy for Africa while Africa has no strategy for China at all.
Former Ambassador to China and war veterans’ leader, Christopher Mutsvangwa, is ecstatic about Mr. Xi’s visit. China has also, for the first time, contributed a full battalion of troops to a United Nations peacekeeping mission, sending 700 soldiers to join the UNMISS operation in South Sudan.
This agenda is always welcome by African leaders who seek to remain in power, especially through repressing competition since China will turn a blind eye to domestic issues.
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Kagwanja says there is a consensus between China and its African friends that win-win cooperation and non-interference in a country’s sovereign affairs will be upheld for ever.
