All without calling into question the power of a single party

How do you measure the growing influence of China in Africa

Several figures attest to this movement. China is now the third largest trading partner of Africa after the United States and the France. If, in 2000, bilateral trade between China and the African continent reached only $ 9.7 billion, it exceeded the 18 billion in 2003 and expected this year, to 39 or $ 40 billion. Total 800 Chinese companies, and in particular large oil groups, construction and Telecom, are located in 49 African countries. Beijing has, moreover, already signed agreements for financial loans at preferential rates with more than 20 capitals of the continent and is committed to train 10,000 frames or African engineers.

Beijing deploys so hard to simply ensure the control of materials such as oil

In Africa, Chinese interests are multilateral, both economic and political. The quest for raw materials is central. China is already important 6.59 million barrels of oil per day in Africa, 25 per cent of all of its imports. Multi-billion dollar supply contracts were signed with Angola, the Sudan, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. China also buy a lot of strategic metals and agricultural products. For Beijing, Africa is also a tremendous market for its cheap manufactured products.

What are its political interests

Africa is the region of the world with the most votes at the United Nations. Repeatedly, Beijing took the African vote to prevent the approval of resolutions which annoyed him. By expanding its economic activities on the Mainland, Beijing was also successful in strengthening the isolation of Taiwan. If in the late 1990s nearly twenty African countries were to recognize the Government of the island, they are more than six today to have diplomatic relations with Taipei. The Chinese have understood that Africa remains a continent where you can project an image of power at less expense. They also were a specialty of rebuild the Presidential Palace and the ministries of several capitals of the continent. All this created links.

How African Governments live the arrival of this new partner

As early as his first African tour, in 1996, President Jiang Zemin promised non-ideological relations based on "mutual interest". Annoyed by political interference by the West, many African leaders appreciate this diplomacy, which has banned any comment on the management of their internal affairs and allows them to reduce their traditional dependence on the major developed countries. In Angola, and Sudan, major Chinese oil groups have thus largely benefited from the political reluctance of businesses European and American.

These groups and these Chinese capital can - it therefore embody the solution to underdevelopment of the African continent

Not really. China has reproduced, in part, in Africa some of the colonial practices of the West. It is place its manufactured products and is almost exclusively buy unprocessed raw materials. All its aid to the construction of infrastructure contracts reserve most of the work in Chinese companies, which often arrive with their own workers. Very few transfers of technology or know-how accompany these trade.

The rise of China challenges African leaders

For the African elites, China actually represents an interesting development model. Beijing proved it was possible, within a generation, to open his country to redress its economy and lead to sustainable growth. All without calling into question the power of a single party. This transformation seduced many African leaders, accustomed to Western discourse that refuses to distinguish between economic development and democratic progress.