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Date: 20/09/2024
Where: Beijing, China
Who’s involved: China, CCP, African continent, FOCAC participants
What happened?
On 04-06/09/2024, the 9th summit of the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing. 53 African leaders attended the summit this year.
As a result of the summit, China has pledged more than US$50 billion, of which US$140 million in military assistance grants, for the next three years to the African nations, largely to invest in sustainable projects to help the continent develop.
Countries that have made bilateral agreements during FOCAC 2024 regarding security and defense cooperation are Liberia, Mali, Togo, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Mozambique. These agreements include joint military exercises and training, Chinese support in strengthening national defense and the armed forces, and combating terrorism.
During FOCAC 2024, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia have agreed to significantly expand their relationship and cooperation with China, elevating their status to the highest level of ‘Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partner’ to China. However, of these countries only Mozambique has made new defense agreements with China during this year’s summit.
The most common new agreements China made with these countries include developing their soft infrastructure (agriculture, education, health, local economic development in Africa, technology and telecommunications projects), (sustainable) energy, trade (currency swap and export agreements), and public relations (cultural exchanges and media sharing agreements).
However, the lack of transparency around the consequential debt owed to China by the recipient countries leads to concerns surrounding the possible ‘debt-trap’ African countries may be subjected to. During the FOCAC 2024 summit, China did not announce the much sought after debt relief by African countries.
Eswatini is the only African country that does not participate in FOCAC, as it has explicitly stated that it recognizes Taiwan as an independent and autonomous country.
Analysis:
China is among the top largest developing countries in the world and the African continent has the most developing countries. Due to this shared status, China and Africa established FOCAC in 2000 and hold a summit every three years. During the FOCAC summits, China and partnering African countries strategize for mutually beneficial milestones that elevate the two parties’ development, decreasing dependency on predominantly the US and Europe. An example of this is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at developing the hard-infrastructure of many African countries, increasing trade and diplomatic ties between Africa and China, and allowing China to position itself as a leader of the global South.
China has significant interest in the African continent for various reasons. China seeks mutually beneficial and profitable cooperation with Africa, while also presenting itself as an alternative to the US and Europe to help African countries develop further. This reinforces China’s aspiration to challenge the U.S. as the current international major power holder, and instead push towards a multi-polar world. An example of this is China’s plan to fund the FOCAC agreements using the China yuan instead of the dollar. So far, China has been seemingly successful, as U.S. FDI in Africa was less than half of China’s in between 2015 and 2022, and that Chinese aid to the African continent is more in line with Africa’s hopes for a multi polar world. China’s increasing presence in Africa also further increases existing political and economic tension between China, Europe and the US. For example, China’s greater access to African natural resources leads to China’s ability to upscale production of renewable energy technologies. This positions China as a strong competitor for EU manufacturers of products such as solar panels and electric vehicles.
Militarily, China is seeking to be a stronger military competitor than the United States and Europe. As U.S. troops completely withdrew from their bases in Niger on 16/09/2024, China has announced additional fundings and training commitments. The recent expansion of military cooperation is in line with China’s ambition to strengthen and expand its military presence into the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Guinea. The US government has in the past attempted to counter China’s ambitions for military presence in this region, as this would mean the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is coming increasingly closer to US shores. Despite the withdrawals from their Nigerien bases, the U.S. Africa Command has stated on 12/09/2024 they will ‘pivot’ their military resources to West African countries of Ghana, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire.
For the African continent, Chinese investments meant significant development in areas such as infrastructure and sustainable energy, but also led to additional financial problems. Africa owes $1.152 trillion in external debt as of 2023, of which around 14% is owed to China, and is struggling to pay it off. China has been often accused of purposefully subjecting Africa to ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, as the Trump administration described it in 2018. In this system, borrowing countries are subjected to excessive loans they will likely fail to pay back, leaving the borrowing country under the lender’s influence and, to some extent, control. This contradicts China’s foreign relations ambitions of good relations, mutually beneficial cooperation, and non-interventionism. A Chatham House study of 2022 indicated that economic factors were indeed the primary driver of BRI projects. ‘Debt-traps’ accusations are also in part based on the assumption that borrowing countries are incapable of estimating their ability to pay back the loans and dismiss the behavior and sometimes poor governance of such states. This, however, does not discount that billions in Chinese loans come with significant strategic leverage, whether Beijing planned for it or not.
Conclusion:
The FOCAC is a multi-faceted undertaking, helping both China and 53 African countries develop economically, militarily and politically. The emphasis the FOCAC places on mutual collaboration between China and the African nations involved, allows room for developments in all these areas and reach the individual and shared goals through a south-south cooperation. By funding the African countries and developing their hard- and soft infrastructure, military capabilities and economic competition, China is showing the (developing) world it could be an alternative to the US as the global leader, or at least play a vital role in a multi-polar world. However, the increasing debt Africa is facing as a consequence is a point of contention.
