Next big project: People to people

After major economic achievements, it is time for China to do a new kind of work in Africa, academic says

It is time for China to build soft power in Africa after having made significant achievements in the continent economically, says Fana Gebresenbet Erda of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies in Addis Ababa.

Gebresenbet, the institute's academic coordinator of global studies, and a lecturer at Addis Ababa University, specializes in peace and security in Africa. He is active in China-Africa relations and one of the main organizers of an annual China-Africa conference held alternately in Beijing and Ethiopia.

Gebresenbet says most Ethiopians learn about China from things they buy that were made there.

"The average person relates to China in terms of clothing, kitchenware, mobile phones and other consumer goods that China exports."

People who could otherwise not afford mobile phones, shirts and other products can now enjoy the convenience Chinese products gives them, Gebresenbet says.

In economics, China is doing a good job, particularly in infrastructure and restructuring of resources, he says.

"China is not doing what it wants to do in Africa, but is adjusting to what African countries want."

Although China has become a strong player in the continent's economy, it has yet to build significant soft power in the continent, Gebresenbet says.

"Let me give an easy example: some local people have the perception that Chinese goods are not very good. The state media here report all the big infrastructure projects and meetings with ministers but the private media contains a lot of criticism, particularly in relation to roads that are supposed to last 20 years showing wear after a few years."

This damages China's image, he says.

Another area of soft power he cites is relationships between people, an area in which he sees a lot of room for China to improve.

Chinese people in Africa are mostly involved in infrastructure projects, usually "in the middle of nowhere", Gebresenbet says, so they barely deal with local people.

"Chinese workers or engineers tend to live in residential compounds and they don't socialize with locals through drinking or chatting as friends do."

In contrast, Westerners tend to deal with locals through various channels such as United Nations projects, government consultation and other activities. So Africans know more about such people and tend to set more store by what they say.

Language may be a serious barrier in efforts to spread Chinese culture, Gebresenbet says. He cites CCTV Africa, which broadcasts throughout the continent in English and French, he says, languages that many Ethiopians do not speak.

In the same way, industrial zones that Chinese people run in Ethiopia tend to be cultural oases. "Chinese people in Africa need to integrate with locals. If that happened it would do wonders in increasing China's soft power," he says.

China has already established some great platforms for economic and cultural exchange, such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, he says, but that is more of a government-to-government organization. The participants are Chinese and African elites, which means there is no real engagement with ordinary people.

"It was established 14 years ago, yet no more than 20 percent of Africans know about it. The forum is a good product, and the Chinese and African governments can do much better in selling it. It does create some links between Chinese and African academics, which represents progress toward the soft power target."

While Gebresenbet dismisses the idea that China is acting as a colonial power in Ethiopia and Africa, it does have interests there, he says.

"China comes to Africa for its national interests, so there is a risk of exploitation. Sometimes jobs are given to non-locals, and sometimes value is not created within the territory. But I wouldn't call it neo-colonialism to any extent."

Ethiopia has no oil or valuable natural resources, so the media cannot blame China for these things, he says.

"But I would say Ethiopia is an important country to have relations with. The African Union and various other important political bodies are based in Ethiopia, so China has the potential to influence other African countries by having a big presence here."

Ethiopia, with a population of 91 million, is a bigger market than most other African ones, which gives it great potential, he says.

"Economic interest doesn't necessarily mean extracting resources from African countries. It also means selling products to the vast African market."

In a sense, Ethiopia is more similar to China than many other African countries because both have big agricultural populations and have paid enormous attention to manufacturing, he says. And many of the economic elite in Ethiopia think there is a lot to learn from China's development.

Africans can thus adapt to the idea of building manufacturing industries, as the Chinese did, as long as government and other institutions provide good education and enough incentives to encourage companies to produce quality industrial products.

Four years ago, the McKinsey Global Institute published a report, Lions on the Move: The Progress and Potential of African Economies, saying economic growth the future would be in supported by Africa's increasing ties to the global economy, and that the rise of the African urban consumer would help fuel long-term growth.

Gebresenbet says it is highly likely that Ethiopia will achieve this transformation in the foreseeable future, but if there is a big lapse in economic decision-making, there may be a reverse.

"In many African countries, there has been the post-independence curse: under the first leadership, the economy takes off, but after one or two decades, everything collapses due to political instability. Even China, South Korea and other fast-developing countries took at least 30 to 50 years' stability to achieve the economic miracle."

China and other BRICS countries will play a more significant role in Africa's development, Gebresenbet says. For instance, BRICS banks will quietly transform Africa.

The continent continues to move away from "the Washington consensus" that the Western countries have prescribed for it and is moving in a direction better fit for developing countries, he says.

Contact the writers through wangchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/16/2014 page32)