China's oil diplomacy in Africa

International Affairs

Volumn 82, Issue 5, 2006, Pages 937-959

  Taylor, Ian ^a,b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS   (United Kingdom)

^b STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

^c MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY   (Uganda)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33749516631     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: 14682346     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2006.00579.x     Document Type: Review

References (157)

1. The extent to which Africa is now a focus of China was indicated by the visit in January 2006 of Li Zhaoxing, China's Foreign Minister, to Cape Verde, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and Libya, President Hu Jintao's visit to Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya in April, and Premier Wen Jiabao's visit in June to Egypt, Ghana, Congo-Brazzaville, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
2. For broader discussions of Sino-African ties, see Ian Taylor, 'The "all-weather friend"? Sino-African interaction in the twenty-first century', in Ian Taylor and Paul Williams, eds, Africa in international politics: external involvement on the continent (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 83-101;
3. Chris Alden, 'China in Africa', Survival 47: 3, 2005, pp. 147-64;
4. Denis Tull, 'China's engagement in Africa: scope, significance and consequences', Journal of Modern African Studies 44: 3, 2006, pp. 459-79.
5. For non-English sources, see Zhang Hongming, 'La politique africaine de la Chine', unpublished paper, Centre d'Étude d'Afrique Noire (CEAN), Bordeaux, 2005;
6. Roland Marchal, 'Comment être semblable tout en étant différent? Les relations entre la Chine et l'Afrique', in Roland Marchal, ed., Afrique-Asie: Echanges inégaux et globalisation subalterne (Bangkok and Paris: Institut de Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine et Les Indes Savants, 2005);
7. Roland Marchal, 'Chine-Afrique: une histoire ancienne', Africultures, no. 66, March 2006;
8. Denis Tull, Die Afrikapolitik der Volksrepublik China (Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Internationale Politik und Sicherheit, 2005);
9. Kirstin Wenk und Jens Wiegmann, 'Chinas großer Sprung nach Afrika', Die Welt (Berlin), 3 Feb. 2006.
10. People's Daily (Beijing), 16 May 2006.
11. China Daily (Beijing), 13 Jan. 2006.
12. See Council for Foreign Relations, More than humanitarianism: a strategic US approach towards Africa (Washington DC: CFR, 2005).
13. See also the OECD's detailed report: Andrea Goldstein, Nicolas Pinaud and Helmut Reisen, The rise of China and India: what's in it for Africa? (Paris: OECD, 2006).
14. See Princeton Lyman, 'China's rising role in Africa', presentation to the US-China Commission, 21 July 2005;
15. Simon Roughneen, 'Influence anxiety: China's role in Africa', ISN Security Watch, 15 May 2006;
16. 'China's empire-builders sweep up African riches', Sunday Times (London), 16 July 2006.
17. Interview with senior western diplomat, Asmara, Eritrea, 30 June 2006; correspondence by author with western diplomats in London and Washington DC.
18. Ian Taylor, China and Africa: engagement and compromise (London: Routledge, 2006).
19. For older historical overviews, see Alaba Ogunsanwo, China's policy in Africa, 1958-1971 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974);
20. Alan Hutchinson, China's African revolution (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1976);
21. Philip Snow, The star raft: China's encounter with Africa (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988).
22. Ian Taylor, 'China's foreign policy towards Africa in the 1990s', Journal of Modern African Studies 36: 3, Sept. 1998, pp. 443-60.
23. See Ian Taylor, 'Taiwan's foreign policy and Africa: the limitations of dollar diplomacy', Journal of Contemporary China 11: 30, Feb. 2002, pp. 125-40.
24. Senegal's switch to Beijing in late 2005 and Chad's resumption of ties with China as of 6 Aug. 2006 have left Taiwan with diplomatic relations in Africa with only Burkina Faso, Gambia, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, and Swaziland. Interestingly, Chad 'has largely untapped oil fields [and is] expected to give China access to Chad's natural resources': Business Day (Johannesburg), 8 Aug. 2006.
25. See Michael Bratton and Nicholas van de Walle, Democratic experiments in Africa: regime transition in comparative perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997);
26. Larry Diamond, Developing democracy: towards consolidation (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
27. Philip Snow, 'China and Africa: consensus and camouflage', in Thomas Robinson and David Shambaugh, eds, Chinese foreign policy: theory and practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 285.
28. Author's interview with Frederico Links, journalist with Insight (Namibian political magazine), Windhoek, Namibia, 14 Aug. 2006.
29. Author's interview with Wang Xue Xian, Chinese ambassador, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 13 Feb. 1998.
30. Author's interview with Ibrahim Yilla, director of Asia and Middle East Countries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 8 June 2006.
31. Quoted in Paul Mooney, 'China's African safari', YaleGlobal, 3 Jan. 2005.
32. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
33. Author's interview with acting head, Political Affairs Section, Chinese Embassy, Windhoek, Namibia, 13 Aug. 2006. These Five Principles are: mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity; non-aggression; non-interference in each other's internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.
34. See China's African policy (Beijing: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006). I am indebted to Dai Yummin of the Chinese embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for a copy of this document.
35. 'Sino-African relations', Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Zimbabwe, 2003.
36. Quoted in People's Daily (Beijing), 10 Oct. 2000.
37. The Beijing Declaration of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, released on 12 Oct. 2000, claimed that 'The purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and other universally recognised principles governing relations among states must be respected.'
38. See e.g. Yong Deng, China rising: power and motivation in Chinese foreign policy (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004);
39. Minxin Pei, China's trapped transition: the limits of developmental autocracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006);
40. James Kynge, China shakes the world: the rise of a hungry nation (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006).
41. Author's interview with Martyn Davies, director, Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1 Aug. 2006.
42. Author's interview with Saffie Koroma, National Accountability Group, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7 June 2006.
43. Author's interview with western diplomat, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7 June 2006.
44. See Philip Andrews-Speed, Stephen Dow and Zhiguo Gao, 'The ongoing reforms to China's government and state sector: the case of the energy industry', Journal of Contemporary China 9: 23, 2000, pp. 5-20.
45. Peter Nolan and Jin Zhang, The challenge of globalization for large Chinese firms (Geneva: UNCTAD, 2002), p. 21.
46. See Amy Myers Jaffe and Steven Lewis, 'Beijing's oil diplomacy', Survival 44: 1, Spring 2002, pp. 115-34.
47. David Zweig and Bi Jianhai, 'China's global hunt for energy', Foreign Affairs 84: 5, 2005, p. 27.
48. Chen Fengying of the China Contemporary International Relations Institute in Beijing, quoted in Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2004.
49. Author's interview with Lucy Corkin, research manager, Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 31 July 2006.
50. It is apparent that many Chinese companies pursue this approach. Deng Guoping, general manager of the China Road and Bridge Corporation in Ethiopia, stated that he is 'instructed to slice projected profit margins so thin - about 3 per cent - that losses are inevitable, given perennial cost overruns in Africa. Western businesses, by contrast, typically paid bids with projected profits of 15 per cent and more.' 'We're a government company and the Chinese government wants us here building things,' he says: quoted in 'China forges deep alliances with war-torn nations in Africa', Sudan Tribune (Paris), 30 March 2005. Dong Wen, the general manager of the Chinese-renovated Bintumani Hotel in Freetown, admitted that business was not good and that she did not understand why her state-owned construction company was involved in the project, given that it did not seem to make money (author's interview, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7 June 2006).
51. Xu Mingzheng, general manager of Sierra Leone Guoji Investment and Development Company, suggested that Chinese companies take a longer view than western companies and are not constrained by the very high profit returns demanded by western shareholders. He also asserted that management costs for the West are high in Africa, while for China they are much lower as Chinese salaries are low. Chinese workers are also prepared to go to places like Africa and put up with the difficulties of working and living in tough conditions. Western workers, by implication, are not. Author's interview, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 8 June 2006.
52. Sergei Troush, China's changing oil strategy and its foreign policy implications, CNAPS working paper (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1999).
53. 'China's global hunt for oil', BBC News Online, 9 March 2005.
54. US Energy Information Administration, China country analysis brief, www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/china.html, accessed 11 July 2006.
55. See Gaye Christoffersen, China's intentions for Russian and Central Asian oil and gas (Washington DC: National Bureau of Asian Research, 1999).
56. Wenran Jiang, Fueling the dragon: China's quest for energy security and Canada's opportunities (Vancouver: Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, April 2005), pp. 4-5.
57. Author's interview with manager, Chinese trading company, Massawa, Eritrea, 1 July 2006.
58. Author's interview with manager, Chinese trading company, Massawa, Eritrea, 1 July 2006.
59. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
60. China Daily (Beijing), 9 Jan. 1998.
61. Speech by Minister Shi Guangsheng at the Sino-Africa Forum, quoted in People's Daily (Beijing), 11 Oct. 2000.
62. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
63. Xu Weizhong, 'A review of Sino-Algerian relations in retrospect', China.org.cn, 2 Feb. 2004.
64. 'China woos Gabon for oil deal', This Day (Lagos), 3 Feb. 2004.
65. 'Nigeria to supply China 30,000 b/d of crude oil ... corporation to make $800m', Vanguard (Lagos), 12 July 2005.
66. Reuters (London), 20 June 2006.
67. 'NNPC approves China's $2.3 billion stake in OPL 246', This Day (Lagos), 21 April 2006.
68. 'Kenya signs exploration contract', East African Standard (Nairobi), 18 April 2006.
69. 'Nigeria-China relations', Daily Champion (Lagos), 5 May 2006.
70. 'Oil deals likely as Angola turns east', Standard (Beijing), 21 June 2006.
71. 'Chinese premier visits oil-producing Congo', Associated Press (Brazzaville), 19 June 2006.
72. 'Oil reserves in the pipeline', New Era (Windhoek), 12 April 2006.
73. 'China to take over Kaduna refinery', Daily Trust (Abuja), 27 April 2006.
74. 'Chinese oil company starts drilling', Reporter (Addis Ababa), 4 March 2006.
75. 'CNPC, Madagascar petroleum to explore Madagascar oil field', Dow Jones (Hong Kong), 24 Feb. 2006.
76. 'Sinopec, CNPC to acquire Sudan oil block for $600 million, report says', Associated Press (Hong Kong), 15 Nov. 2005.
77. See David Shinn, 'Africa and China's global activism', paper presented at the National Defense University Pacific Symposium, 'China's global activism: implications for US security interests', National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington DC, 20 June 2006.
78. Quoted in Chinafrica (Beijing), 16 Feb. 2006, p. 4.
79. Quoted in Chinafrica (Beijing), 1 April 2006, p. 4.
80. Author's interview with David Jabati, news editor, Awareness Times, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7 June 2006.
81. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
82. Star ( Johannesburg), 21 June 2006.
83. Tony Hodges, Angola: from Afro-Stalinism to petro-diamond capitalism (Oxford: James Currey, 2001).
84. Reuters (Kigali), 11 March 2004.
85. Christine Messiant, 'The Eduardo Dos Santos Foundation: or, how Angola's regime is taking over civil society', African Affairs, no. 100, 2001, p. 292.
86. China Daily (Beijing), 7 March 2005.
87. 'China, Angola sign 9 cooperation agreements', afrol News (Luanda), 7 March 2006.
88. Quoted in 'Angola: cautious optimism for 2005', United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, New York, 14 Jan. 2005.
89. Embassy of Angola, 'Angola-China: an example of South-South cooperation', 26 March 2004.
90. Xinhua (Beijing), 24 Jan. 2006.
91. 'Angola: oil-backed loan will finance recovery projects', Integrated Regional Information Networks (Luanda), 21 Feb. 2005.
92. 'Angola: oil-backed loan will finance recovery projects'.
93. Jean-Christophe Servant, 'China's trade safari in Africa', Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2005, p. 6.
94. Author's interview with Lucy Corkin, Research Manager, Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 31 July 2006.
95. See African Development Bank/OECD, African economic outlook 2005-06: Angola (Paris: OECD, 2006).
96. 'Sudan gets Chinese jets', 13 July 2000, www.worldnetdaily.com, accessed 16 April 2006.
97. Amnesty International, People's Republic of China: sustaining conflict and human rights abuses: the flow of arms accelerates (New York: Amnesty International, 2006).
98. 'Chinese investment spurs civil war in Sudan', CNSNews.com, 3 Sept. 1999.
99. As did Indian companies, it should be noted.
100. 'Chinese investment spurs civil war in Sudan'.
101. Quoted in New York Times, 22 Aug. 2005.
102. For examples, see 'China covets African oil and trade', Jane's Intelligence Review (London), 12 Oct. 2004;
103. 'Yet another Great Game', Newsweek (New York), 20 Dec. 2004;
104. Peter Brookes and Ji Hye Shin, 'China's influence in Africa: implications for the United States', Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, no. 1916, 22 Feb. 2006;
105. 'Africa's China card', Foreign Policy, 11 April 2006.
106. Author's interview with Moses Pakote, deputy director, Investor Services, Namibia Investment Centre, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Windhoek, Namibia, 11 Aug. 2006.
107. Author's interview with Christopher Parsons, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 8 June 2006.
108. Deutsche Bank Research, 'China's commodity hunger: implications for Africa and Latin America', 13 June 2006, p. 12.
109. Deutsche Bank Research, 'China's commodity hunger: implications for Africa and Latin America', 13 June 2006, p. 12.
110. Author's interview with Henning Melber, Namibian political economist, Windhoek, Namibia, 14 Aug. 2006.
111. China likes to play this card if and when criticized for its no-questions-asked policy. For instance, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang, in denying that China ignores human rights considerations, lashed out at western journalists, asserting that 'We [China] will not repeat the record of the then Western colonists who bloodily plundered and violated human rights. China is a responsible country.' Quoted by Agence France-Presse (Beijing), 26 April 2006.
112. 'Dutch halt Kenya aid over graft', BBC News Online, 29 April 2006.
113. 'China's Hu boosts Kenyan business', BBC News Online, 28 April 2006.
114. Author's interview with Henning Melber, Namibian political economist, Windhoek, Namibia, 14 Aug. 2006.
115. Nation (Nairobi), 12 June 2006.
116. As one overview of Sino-African ties puts it, 'Good governance is a prerequisite for the higher-order investments in Africa that Africans consider essential, such as beneficiation of natural resources and diversification of economic interests. It is important that Chinese and US economic activities do not implicitly or unconsciously undermine good governance, but also that Africa was not subjected to different rules than the US and others applied to different regions notably the Middle East.' 'Africa-China-US Dialogue', report of the first meeting of the Trilateral Dialogue, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa, 4-6 Aug. 2006, Brenthurst Discussion Papers 6/2006, p. 3.
117. Author's interview with Robin Sherborne, editor of Insight (Namibian political magazine), Windhoek, Namibia, 14 Aug. 2006.
118. See Ian Taylor, NEPAD: towards Africa's development or another false start? (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005).
119. Africa Research Bulletin, 16 Feb.-15 March 2006, p. 16855.
120. See e.g. Liu Guijin, 'China-Africa relations: equality, cooperation and mutual development', speech to the Institute of Security Studies, Pretoria, South Africa, 9 Nov. 2004.
121. Star (Johannesburg), 4 July 2006.
122. For a flavour of this concern, see 'Beijing woos Africa's contemptibles', Business Day (Johannesburg), 18 July 2006.
123. 'Car blast near Nigeria oil port', BBC News Online, 30 April 2006.
124. Author's interview with Robin Sherborne, editor of Insight (Namibian political magazine), Windhoek, Namibia, 14 Aug. 2006. In July 2006 miners working for the Zambian copper producer Chambishi Mining destroyed property in a protest. During this protest, according to miners and Zambian police, Chinese managers opened fire, wounding five workers.
125. Author's interview with western journalist, Asmara, Eritrea, 6 July 2006. Because of the regular expulsion of journalists from Eritrea, the name of the source is withheld.
126. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
127. Author's interview with senior western diplomat, Asmara, Eritrea, 30 June 2006.
128. Author's interview with western diplomat, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006. China's current economic relationship with Asmara is largely based on construction and water borehole drilling.
129. Author's interview with western journalist, Asmara, Eritrea, 6 July 2006. See also Kidane Mengisteab and Okbazghi Yohannes, Anatomy of an African tragedy: political, economic and foreign policy crisis in post-independence Eritrea (Lawrenceville, VA: Red Sea Press, 2005).
130. Author's interview with Stan Rogers, Nevsun Resources, Asmara, Eritrea, 5 July 2006. The Bisha mine project, due to go into production in 2008, is predicted to produce $1 billion worth of copper, zinc and gold over the following ten years.
131. Author's interview with western diplomats, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June and 30 June 30, 2006.
132. Although the more developed economy of South Africa is a major factor, it is undoubtedly the fact that South Africa's relatively strong state makes Pretoria a far more resilient partner with which to negotiate and do business than other regimes elsewhere on the continent.
133. Oil and Gas Development Ltd, the largest petroleum exploration and production company in Pakistan, is reported to wish to establish an office in Eritrea shortly to cooperate in hydrocarbon exploration and assist in developing Asmara's oil and gas sector: interview with western diplomat, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
134. Robert Jackson, Quasi-states: sovereignty, international relations, and the Third World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
135. Ian Taylor, 'Blind spots in analyzing Africa's place in world politics', Global Governance 10: 4, Oct.-Dec. 2004, pp. 411-17.
136. Robert Jackson, 'Quasi-states, dual regimes, and neoclassical theory: international jurisprudence and the Third World', International Organization 41, 1987, p. 528.
137. This is why, in African countries currently prospecting for oil or where oil deposits are suspected - such as Sierra Leone - debate about the costs and benefits of any finds has become politically important. Author's interview with Sanusi Deen, National Chairman, Sierra Leone Indigenous Business Association, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7 June 2006. In Uganda, which has recently discovered oil, this debate is now raging: see 'With leaders like ours, we need oil wealth like a hole in the head', East African (Nairobi), 20 July 2006;
138. 'Oil and democracy', Monitor (Kampala), 12 July 2006;
139. 'Oil discovery is a blessing', Monitor (Kampala), 12 July 2006.
140. Thomas L. Friedman, 'The first law of petropolitics', Foreign Policy, May/June 2006, pp. 31-2.
141. David Leonard and Scott Straus, Africa's stalled development: international causes and cures (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), p. 13.
142. Douglas Yates, The rentier state in Africa: oil, rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1996).
143. See Catholic Relief Services, Bottom of the barrel: Africa's oil boom and the poor, www.catholicrelief.org/get_involved/advocacy/ policy_and_strategic_issues/oil_report_full.pdf, accessed 12 July 2006.
144. Leonard and Straus, Africa's stalled development, p. 16.
145. For a detailed case-study, see Geoffrey Wood, 'Business and politics in a criminal state: the case of Equatorial Guinea', African Affairs 103: 413, 2004, pp. 547-67.
146. Richard Joseph, 'Affluence and underdevelopment: the Nigerian experience', Journal of Modern African Studies 16: 2, 1984, pp. 221-40.
147. See e.g. Clive Wright, 'Ethics in the petrochemical industry', Business Ethics: a European Review 6: 1, 1997, pp. 52-7;
148. G. Chandler, 'Oil companies and human rights', Business Ethics: a European Review 7: 2, April 1998, pp. 69-72;
149. Esther Cesarz, J. Stephen Morrison and Jennifer Cooke, Alienation and militancy in Nigeria's Niger Delta (Washington DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2003);
150. Afeikhena Jerome, Senyo Adjibolosoo and Dipo Busari, 'Addressing oil related corruption in Africa: is the push for transparency enough?', Review of Human Factor Studies 11: 1, 2005, pp. 7-32.
151. Guang Lei, 'Realpolitik nationalism: international sources of Chinese nationalism', Modern China 31: 4, 2005, pp. 487-514.
152. Zweig and Bi, 'China's global hunt for energy', p. 30.
153. Author's interview with Shu Zhan, Chinese ambassador, Asmara, Eritrea, 29 June 2006.
154. He Wenping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, quoted in Servant, 'China's trade safari in Africa', p. 7.
155. Quoted in 'China's presence a boon to Africa - UN adviser', Reuters (Beijing), 15 Aug. 2006.
156. Brett Schaefer, 'America's growing reliance on African energy resources', Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, no. 1944, 20 June 2006, pp. 8-9.
157. As one report puts it, China's oil diplomacy 'may unpick the strategy carefully knitted deal between the West and key African players for economic liberalisation accompanied by "good governance", leading to stability': Africa Research Bulletin, 16 Dec. 2005-15 Jan. 2006, p. 16785.