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Sino-Africa Relations and the Problem of Human Rights: A Response to Ian Taylor.
- Lloyd G.A. Amoah (14 March 2008)
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Lloyd G.A. Amoah, Academic/Policy Analyst Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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lgaamoah{at}gmail.com Lloyd G.A. Amoah
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Ian Taylor’s recent article (2008) in this journal on governance in Africa and Sino-African relations made interesting but worrying reading. Interesting because Mr. Taylor attempts to interrogate the increasingly close politico-economic ties between Africa and China in contemporary times. Interesting also because Mr. Taylor engages in the same analysis albeit in a different journal and under a different title (Governance in Africa and Sino-African Relations: Contradictions or Confluence?).1 . The benefits of such an enterprise to the extent that it provides some elucidation on the basis, motives and outcomes of the patterns of interaction between an emerging global economic colossus and a potentially rich continent need not be flogged. The disquiet emerges from the misrepresentation, stereotyping, confounding generalizations and frightening misinformation which serve to distort Sino-African relations. The title of Mr. Taylor’s article presents itself as candidate for some deconstruction. It is not difficult to discern in the title an expression of the problematic reality of linking governance issues to the bilateral and multilateral engagements of African countries especially in relation to international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the OECD countries.2 This notion of conflating international relations with the forced acceptance and adoption of governance and governmentality conceptions from without is a hotly contested matter in North-South relations. The title simply accepts this notion as ideal and proceeds to the matter at hand on this pockmarked canvass. In the main, Mr. Taylor seems to make the following points: 1) China’s engagement with Africa is driven essentially by her business interests (oil, raw materials and export markets）which is facilitated by espousing a communitarian, non-meddlesome view of human rights. 2) A large proportion of African states are run by corrupt elites who are not accountable to their citizens, less concerned about the development f their countries and are too glad to do business with a China which tends not to meddle in internal political affairs. The first point is a humongous simplification. China’s relations with Africa which date back to Zheng He’s explorations during the Ming Dynasty is suffused with its own subtleties, tonalities and sophistications which a pecuniary reductionism cannot adequately encapsulate. China’s policy positions on Africa are public knowledge and reflect the range and expanse of this Asian country’s putative and concrete dealings with African Republics.3 The second point is a gross generalization packed with stereotypical reasoning premised on an arguably outmoded characterization of African politics, governance and statecraft which crumbles under the weight of empirical scrutiny. The neo-patrimonialism narrative which the author and some Western academics utilize as a typology of the African state clearly needs revision in the light of the facts in contemporary Africa. Larry Diamond4 acknowledges that two-fifths of the nations in Africa are democratic. Measured albeit consistent and halting steps have been taken in the last four years towards democratic consolidation in Africa.5 And if Mr. Taylor cares to know it is not difficult to find in Africa a sizeable, vocal and creative leadership in and out of government dedicated to a renascent Africa. Bratton, Mates and Gyimah-Boadi6 assert that “unfortunately, democratization in Africa has often occurred “backwards,” at least in comparison to the sequence in which political development has unfolded in the West.” Here in lies the problematic as I understand it which if resolved would provide an enlightened basis for discourse on governance in Africa: the refusal of analysts to acknowledge that governance in Africa and other parts of the world will evolve in an idiographic manner conditioned and constrained by historical, cultural and other factors. President Mbeki’s comment7 on Africa-China relations which Mr. Taylor refers to when he avers that Mr. Mbeki “warned against a new possible form of colonialisation stemming from China’s growth into Africa(Taylor,2008:74)” must be interpreted in the light of the general tenor of the blog. Appropriately titled “At the Heavenly Gate in Beijing Hope is born,” Mr. Mbeki sought to bring to the fore to Africans the grand opportunity that China’s emergence as a global economic, technological and political powerhouse presents to the continent and indeed the world. For Mr. Mbeki China’s emergence is an empirical fact which African nations needed to respond to strategically for the benefit of China, Africa and the world. And surely this cannot be the same as saying that China has colonial ambitions which Africa need be wary of. The reference to colonialism was made to underscore the relative size of the Chinese economy vis a viz that of other African economies (including that of South Africa) which mirrors the metropole-colony economic relationship erected by the colonial enterprise. The moral in Mr. Mbeki’s article is that in China Africa had a genuine, interested and friendly partner with whom she shared similar civilizational achievements, history and developmental challenges. Why Mr. Taylor seemingly suffers selective amnesia on this point I cannot tell but Mr. Mbeki’s article –a very public document- contains the facts which cannot be distorted. China’s emergence as a significant player in the global economy is an incontrovertible fact that cannot be wished away. It is also a hard reality that the geo-strategic configurations that the world has been used to for the last four hundred years and which was constructed, defined and maintained by Anglo-American supremacy is undergoing tectonic shifts. China has her interests in Africa to pursue. That is her legitimate and democratic right. China has elaborated her conception of international relations based on her interpretation of events and patterns in the international political economy. That is her democratic ideational right. Africa surely must choose her friends. And Africa must make strategic choices based on her enlightened self interest and her historical experiences as the world evolves. These are some of the variables which ought to inform the discourse on Africa-China relations and not some narrow, self-serving explication hanging on threadbare and worn premises. 1 Ian Taylor, ‘Governance in Africa and Sino-African Relations: Contradictions or Confluence?’ , Politics 27,3(November 2007),pp.139-46. 2. See Lloyd G.A. Amoah, Democratization and Development Aid: Ghana’s Experience(1989-2003),Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon; World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth,( World Bank, Washington, D.C,1989);Richard Sandbrook, The Politics of Africa’s Economic Recovery,( Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1993). 3. In the China Africa Policy Document released in 2006 China provides the key thematic areas of Africa-China development cooperation viz education, science, culture and health. The Forum on China- Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Addis Ababa Action Plan (2004-2006) and other FOCAC documents provide a rich source of information on China-Africa policy. 4. See Larry Diamond, ‘Universal Democracy’, Policy Review (June-July 2003), http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3448571.html. 5. The African Peer Review Mechanism under NEPAD which was adopted in Durban, South Africa in 2002 is a voluntary process by which African countries seek to audit each other in areas such as political, economic and corporate governance. By June 2005, 23 countries in Africa were participating in the process with intentions to accede having been received Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan and Zambia. 6. See Michael Bratton et al, Public Opinion, Democracy and Market Reforms in Africa,(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005). 7. See Thabo Mbeki, ‘At the Heavenly Gate in Beijing hope is born!’ LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 6, 44(November 16, 2006). Conflict of Interest:None declared |
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