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Essay ini saya tulis dengan judul "Emerging Powers and Africa" untuk mata kuliah Africa in International Politics in 2012. Mereferensi dari Christopher Alden IRLSE. Ini adalah sebagian dari essay tersebut yang spesifik menjelaskan tentang hubungan Tiongkok dan Afrika. 

China’s role in Africa has received considerable attention in recent years. Since the onset of the domestic reform process starting in 1978, Maoist faith and revolutionary altruism have given way to the consciously self-interested commercial entrepreneurs and advocates of forms of market capitalism. As Africa’s second most significant trading partner in aggregate terms and provider of large loan packages in exchange for provisions for infrastructure, as well as an increasingly important investor in financial services, China is easily the largest of the emerging powers operating in Africa today. China’s declared position is that its ties with Africa are based on explicit declarations of historic connectivity, political equality, respect for sovereignty, non-intervention and in economic matters, mutual benefit.

China frames the relationship in the form of a multilateral diplomatic initiative, the tri-annual Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), while the details of its implementation are overwhelmingly bilateral arrangements. Negotiated loans, grants and investments have allowed African governments a role in setting the agenda for the relationship, for example in prioritizing particular sectors or projects. Beijing likes to point to the constancy of Chinese solidarity with African interests, especially during the anti-colonial struggle, as well as their shared history as victims of imperialism as producing the requisite conditions for a common outlook. A pre-colonial episode, the voyages of Ming dynasty Admiral Zheng He to Africa in the early 15th century, has been retrieved to underscore China’s benign intentions towards the continent.

Given the diplomatic imperative of countering Taiwan’s drive – now muted under the current Guomindang government – for official recognition in Africa from the 1950s onwards, the Chinese government has had to ensure that it has a continent-wide approach to Africa. At the same time, the bulk of China’s economic interests are focused in the leading African resource economies, namely Angola, Sudan, Nigeria, and Republic of Congo, as well as the more diversified South African economy. Beijing’s dualist approach – multilateral through FOCAC and bilateral in terms of implementation of specific forms of cooperation and investment – is tailored to provide a means of addressing both sets of concern for China.

There is a belated recognition by Chinese officials that not all Chinese economic actors have been operating in ways that promote mutual benefit for China and Africa. Official admonishments to abide by local government laws and regulations, combined with an effort to introduce aspects of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda into the conduct of leading State Owned Enterprise (SOE) and major Chinese corporations are seen to be sufficient palliatives. With regard to smaller private Chinese firms, however, the ability of Beijing to control their actions is relatively limited as these operate in Africa without utilizing the conventional sources of finance and consciously seek to act outside of the reach of the Chinese state.

Nonetheless, the weakness of some African states’ ability to enforce their own regulations is in many ways a fundamental problem in this area. This has not stopped the local media from trenchantly criticizing the conduct of some Chinese firms. A growing dilemma for the Chinese government is how to protect and preserve its established economic interests without being seen to violate sacred foreign policy principles such as non-interference. One response has been to distinguish between intervention legitimated through multilateral institutions such as the United Nations with the concurrence of African governments, from those actions that lack these elements. Finally the role of unlimited Chinese migration to Africa, though small compared to migration to other parts of the world, nonetheless has aroused concern in some African communities and casts a shadow over local perceptions of Chinese intentions.

Gambar courtesy Google from outlookindia.com.

Semoga bermanfaat! 

:)

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