Chinese learn African languages to grow trade

China’s interest in Africa is frequently portrayed simply as that of a rising economic power seeking natural resources.

Deborah Brautigam, author of The Dragon’s Gift: the Real Story of China in Africa, argues that in contrast to Europe and the United States, China also sees Africa as an important market.

As well as dominating exports of consumer goods to Africa, Chinese companies are exploring manufacturing and infrastructure construction across the continent, and coming up with innovative ways to profit from and pay for it. She spoke to Davison Makanga of IPS.

Q: Let’s talk about the recent deal to build refineries in Nigeria: how does it illustrate what you’ve called “resource-backed infrastructure loans” by China in Africa?

A: First of all, it was a only a memorandum of understanding. The key thing to look at is where the financing is. There is no financing mentioned in this [May] deal. [In July, some details of funding for a first refinery were reached.] I think it will be very brave Chinese bank that takes on a 20-something billion dollar project in Nigeria because, yes, Nigeria is much more stable than Democratic Republic of Congo, but the DRC projects are much smaller.

I think they would be much smarter to start with one oil refinery and see how it goes. Right now 85 per cent of the petroleum products consumed in Nigeria are imported and they export raw oil, so it’s really a bad situation. But the reason the situation is like that is political.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of China’s involvement in Nigeria?

Nigeria is a country in which there have been a lot of discussions of doing these resource backed infrastructure loans. My understanding is that the Nigerian government came up with this idea. Perhaps they looked at Angola and some of the things the Chinese were doing there.

They proposed this to the Chinese, Indians, Koreans: so a number of different Asian companies and government got a proposal that they do oil-backed trades, getting access to concessions out in the Niger Delta and in return they could do the infrastructure projects. It is a different kind of deal than the DRC and Angola.

Because in Angola the oil is being pumped so you can secure loans with oil that is already being exported. In Nigeria, you can get a concession but there is no guarantee that you will actually get oil there and of course there are expenses.

In DRC, the Chinese made very sure that they put in the contract that the copper concession had to be evaluated so they could be sure there was enough copper in there, and copper that could be mined at a cost-effective price.

What is in it for China in the end? Why get involved in complex, risky deals?

I think it is useful to look at China’s relationship with Africa as part of its strategy of going global. It’s about China being part of globalisation.

You can call this neo-colonialism, imperialism but what globalisation is all about is moving up the ladder, it’s about becoming a world economic power and so China looks at Africa as a partner in this. So what do the various parts Africa provide for their partnership?

What they are largely providing is raw materials; but the other side of it is, [Africa is] a huge market. The West has by and large been competed out or they have given up on African markets but these markets are huge. China is the single largest exporter to Africa all across the board.