Where China is changing its diplomatic ways (at least a little)

Dizzying visits to African countries in crisis.

An elegant training center for the continent’s emerging politicians.

The prospect of an important debt remission from a favorite African country.

With the collapse of relations with the United States and Europe, China is starting to new wave of diplomacy in Africa, where it dominates trade with resource-rich nations and maintains friendly ties with mostly authoritarian leaders, without the obstacles of competition from the West.

China’s campaign to cultivate African loyalty is part of a larger project geopolitical competition, which has intensified since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Beijing and Washington, already fiercely competing for loyalty in Asia, now compete extensively for influence, with the United States, Europe and their democratic allies pitted against China, Russia, Iran and other autocracies.

To increase competition, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrovbegan a tour of Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and Congo.

In Africa, China is adjusting its approach, integrating financial and diplomatic efforts more closely.

It is a recognition that only the construction of new highways, hydroelectric dams and skyscrapers, as China has tried to do with the Initiative Belt and Road, it is not enough to make relationships safe.

While the initiative in dozens of countries has helped relegate the United States in a second-tier position in many places, projects also have voltages amplified and they added to a growing debt crisis.

Complementing the railways and roads, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinpinglaunched a new initiative for global security in the spring, a broad effort to unite developing countries.

A great lender for Africa, Beijing seeks to protect current and future resources, including demand for the continent’s vast minerals.

You also want to make sure it’s the first overseas naval basein Djibouti at the entrance to the Red Sea, it flows smoothly to ensure oil shipments.

China comes from Ethiopia, in the strategically important Horn of Africa, up to Zambiaa heavily indebted nation with large copper mines further south.

Beijing offers to mediate the civil conflicts that are causing devastating famines and, most importantly, signaling a new strategy to resolve billions of dollars in overdue Chinese loans.

“The United States has said it is turning to Asia, so there is a perception of an American withdrawal on the continent,” said Murithi Mutiga, project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, a research team.

“The Chinese were the main economic partner,” he added.

“Now they are also playing in the geopolitical sphere”.

Beijing’s strategy has a financial basis.

Trade between China and the mainland has been overcome 250 billion dollars in 2021, compared with 64.33 billion of US dollars.

Chinese companies operating in Africa are investing so quickly in mining for lithium which, by 2030, China should control 75% of the mineralwhich is primarily used in electric vehicles, said Henry Sanderson, executive editor of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

From economic projects, China is changing its diplomatic message.

Instead of keeping away from the thorniest issues, directly involveseven if it’s not always welcome.

In January, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited three African countries.

His message: China wants to help resolve its conflicts, many of them internal.

In Ethiopia clashes between the central government and the Front Liberation people of Tigray they forced 2 million people to flee their homes and left parts of the country starving.

China appointed Xue Bing envoy to the Horn of Africa, a new post, in February.

Xue, a former Chinese ambassador to Papua New Guinea, flew to several countries, includings Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan.

In June, Xue summoned foreign ministers and deputy ministers from five countries to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and boasted that China was adopting a impartial approach in long-term civil conflicts.

The Chinese official was the latest in a series of outside mediators who tried to end the conflict or stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia, often with little success.

At the first session in Addis Ababa, Xue said he would be happy to bring the countries together again.

“I myself am ready to provide mediation efforts,” he said.

But no new date has been set and Ethiopia, which appeared to be Xue’s main target, did not accept his offer.

China also has promoted his authoritarian model, in contrast to the defense of the democracies of the United States.

China is adept at teaching the virtues of the one-party state to African leaders, a constant theme in China’s life. Mao Zedong.

Now China is introducing the updated version to a new training school in Tanzania, initiated by the Department of international connection, the powerful body within the Communist Party that promotes China’s ideology and influence overseas.

Named after Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s founding president and staunch Mao supporter, the school accepted its first group of future leaders in June, drawn from political parties in six southern African nations that ruled without serious challenge from the independence.

At the opening, the head of the Liaison Department Song Tao addressed the young politicians on video, urging them to follow the model of governance embodied by the Chinese Communist Party.

Against the backdrop of China’s diplomatic efforts looms debt.

Some African nations that have signed the Belt and Road Initiative they cannot keep their paymentsa crisis aggravated by high inflation and the depreciation of the currency.

China is Zambia’s largest bilateral lender.

Beijing has built roads, two airports and a large dam in Zambia, and the country is in urgent need of restructuring $ 6 billion in debt.

The International Monetary Fund he told Zambia that unless China’s debt problem is resolved, it will not provide a $ 1.3 billion bailout package.

China is working with the new president of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, who won after throwing corruption allegations against former president Edgar Lungu, long favored by China.

In one of the first movements of Hichilema, canceled some Chinese projects.

In December, the Biden administration invited the Zambian president to speak at its Virtual Democracy Summit, instituting minimal competition with Beijing.

Then, in May, Xi spoke on the phone with Hichilema.

“The phone call assured the new president of Zambia that the Chinese would make an offer debt reliefsaid Deborah Brautigam, director of the SAIS China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

In the past, China has worked alone and secretly with countries for debt relief.

This is partly, Brautigam said, because many Chinese government entities, as well as companies, are in debt, which complicates efforts to reach agreements.

In the case of Zambia, almost 20 different Chinese entitiesShe said.

Western criticisms of Chinese loans are routinely dismissed by Chinese officials as unfair and lacking in understanding.

In the case of Zambia, this was especially true, said Zhao Yongsheng, a finance expert at the University of International Business and Economics, a Chinese research institute.

Zhao worked on an aid project nearly 40 years ago in Zaire, now Congo.

Beijing has deferred payment of Zambia’s debt for about $ 1 billion in loans over the past two years, paying particular attention to the pandemic, Zhao said.

“The Chinese are actually more capable of understanding the difficulties and problems facing African countries like Zambia then and now than European countries and the United States,” he said.

Last month, under pressure from multilateral financial institutions, China participated for the first time in a meeting with the Parisian club creditor countries to start solving Zambia’s debt problem.

The solution is to extend the payment period for Zambia or to reduce the loan value for China.

In a move intended to mediate disputes between the myriad of Chinese lenders, the Chinese Foreign Ministry is now involved in the process.

A new Chinese ambassador to Zambia, Du Xiaohui, is promoting a swift resolution, Brautigam said.

If the Zambian debt crisis were handled more openly, China could clean up its image and African countries with large loans could benefit from it, said Guyude Moore, a former minister of public works in Liberia and now an analyst at the Center for Global Development of Washington.

It could “mark the beginning of a period of standardization Of the debt ».

With the debt crisis looming in Africa, he added, “this is a big problem”.

Li You contributed to the research.

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