29
Agu
2014
China and Africa
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0 Comments
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!
:)
LMA