• Home
  • About RSIS
    • Introduction
    • Building the Foundations
    • Welcome Message
    • Board of Governors
    • Staff Profiles
      • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
      • Dean’s Office
      • Management
      • Distinguished Fellows
      • Faculty and Research
      • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
      • Visiting Fellows
      • Adjunct Fellows
      • Administrative Staff
    • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
    • RSIS Endowment Fund
    • Endowed Professorships
    • Career Opportunities
    • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
    • Research Centres
      • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
      • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
      • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
      • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
      • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
    • Research Programmes
      • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
      • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
    • [email protected] Newsletter
    • Other Research
      • Future Issues And Technology (FIT)
      • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
    • Graduate Programmes Office
    • Overview
    • MSc (Asian Studies)
    • MSc (International Political Economy)
    • MSc (International Relations)
    • MSc (Strategic Studies)
    • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
    • PhD Programme
    • Exchange Partners and Programmes
    • How to Apply
    • Financial Assistance
    • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
    • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
    • Alumni
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
    • SRP Executive Programme
    • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
    • RSIS Publications
      • Annual Reviews
      • Books
      • Bulletins and Newsletters
      • Commentaries
      • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
      • Commemorative / Event Reports
      • IDSS Paper
      • Interreligious Relations
      • Monographs
      • NTS Insight
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • RSIS Publications for the Year
    • Glossary of Abbreviations
    • External Publications
      • Authored Books
      • Journal Articles
      • Edited Books
      • Chapters in Edited Books
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • Op-Eds
      • External Publications for the Year
    • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
    • Great Powers
    • Sustainable Security
    • Other Resource Pages
    • Media Highlights
    • News Releases
    • Speeches
    • Vidcast Channel
    • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsis.sg
Linkedin
instagram instagram rsis.sg
RSS
  • Home
  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
        • Dean’s Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
        • Faculty and Research
        • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
      • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
      • RSIS Endowment Fund
      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
      • Research Centres
        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • [email protected] Newsletter
      • Other Research
        • Future Issues And Technology (FIT)
        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
      • Graduate Programmes Office
      • Overview
      • MSc (Asian Studies)
      • MSc (International Political Economy)
      • MSc (International Relations)
      • MSc (Strategic Studies)
      • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
      • PhD Programme
      • Exchange Partners and Programmes
      • How to Apply
      • Financial Assistance
      • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
      • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
      • Alumni
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
      • SRP Executive Programme
      • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
      • RSIS Publications
        • Annual Reviews
        • Books
        • Bulletins and Newsletters
        • Commentaries
        • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
        • Commemorative / Event Reports
        • IDSS Paper
        • Interreligious Relations
        • Monographs
        • NTS Insight
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • RSIS Publications for the Year
      • Glossary of Abbreviations
      • External Publications
        • Authored Books
        • Journal Articles
        • Edited Books
        • Chapters in Edited Books
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • Op-Eds
        • External Publications for the Year
      • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
      • Great Powers
      • Sustainable Security
      • Other Resource Pages
      • Media Highlights
      • News Releases
      • Speeches
      • Vidcast Channel
      • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
  • instagram instagram rsis.sg
Connect

Getting to RSIS

Map

Address

Nanyang Technological University
Block S4, Level B3,
50 Nanyang Avenue,
Singapore 639798

View location on Google maps Click here for directions to RSIS

Get in Touch

    Connect with Us

      rsis.ntu
      rsis_ntu
      rsisntu
    RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsisvideocast
      school/rsis-ntu
    instagram instagram rsis.sg
      RSS
    Subscribe to RSIS Publications
    Subscribe to RSIS Events

    RSIS Intranet

    S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Think Tank and Graduate School Ponder The Improbable Since 1966
    Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University

    Skip to content

     
    • RSIS
    • Publication
    • RSIS Publications
    • CO12153 | Great Power Rivalry in Africa: Economic Engagement Holds Key
    • Annual Reviews
    • Books
    • Bulletins and Newsletters
    • Commentaries
    • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
    • Commemorative / Event Reports
    • IDSS Paper
    • Interreligious Relations
    • Monographs
    • NTS Insight
    • Policy Reports
    • Working Papers
    • RSIS Publications for the Year

    CO12153 | Great Power Rivalry in Africa: Economic Engagement Holds Key
    Joel Ng

    14 August 2012

    download pdf
    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    Hillary Clinton’s visit to Africa, following the recently-concluded China-Africa Summit, is viewed as a competition for influence in Africa. However, those who criticise China’s expansion in Africa largely ignore the structural differences in economic engagement between the US and China with their African counterparts.

    Commentary

    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent nine-country tour of Africa has largely been viewed as following the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing in July. At the FOCAC summit, the fifth since 2000, China pledged US$20 billion in aid to various African projects across the continent, reinforcing Chinese centrality in Africa’s development aspirations.

    Chinese media made great play of China’s being Africa’s number one trading partner, with some $166 billion in trade with the continent in 2011, more than 16 times the level in 2000. The US is unable to match these numbers – its trade with Africa over the same period was just under $126 billion, according to the US Census Bureau. Instead, in Senegal, Clinton highlighted over $630 million in aid the US had pledged in a variety of development projects in just that state alone.

    Given these differences, the US has focused on commitments in other forms, especially its stated support for good governance and democratization. Clinton’s speech in Senegal mentioned no names, but she described America’s partnership with Africa as one “that adds value rather than extracts it” – widely seen as a dig at China’s sectoral emphasis on extractive industries such as mining and oil & gas in its trade with Africa. Earlier, during a visit to Zambia in 2011, Clinton had warned of a “new colonialism” in Africa, again interpreted as an indirect reference to China.

    Communication breakdown

    Western criticisms of China’s engagement, however, have failed to make an impact on the continent, for three reasons: Firstly, the Western supporters of human rights and good governance have failed to demonstrate clearly how the values they espouse for the continent have led to real economic growth. The saying that “You can’t eat democracy” has resonance precisely because of this failure.

    Aware of these shortcomings, Clinton acknowledged in her speech that the US “has not always done the best job promoting and explaining what we mean.” Similarly, Obama’s deeply symbolic first visit to Africa as president was to Ghana because of its strong democratization.

    Yet this rhetorical commitment can be difficult to reconcile with economic and security imperatives. Clinton’s stop in Uganda, a key security ally but with a controversial human rights record, symbolised the delicate balance, while the US has threatened to withdraw aid to Rwanda, which has been accused of supporting insurgents in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, for the democratization argument to gain real traction it will take more than just good public relations: the truly democratic states (and this in itself is a contentious issue), must economically perform visibly better than their more authoritarian neighbours, and this has not yet occurred. Until then, it remains a moral argument – a much harder sell in a post-colonial age.

    Differences in aid

    The second factor is that too often, aid has not had sufficient impact. The management and disbursement of aid has improved over the years, but it still has a legacy of failure to overcome, rooted in failed technocratic attempts of the 1960s–1980s. Aid also doesn’t translate often enough into economic growth. Aside from losses to corruption, much of aid promised simply does not reach the shores of Africa in monetary form. Two-thirds of American food aid in 2010-11 went to just three American companies (who then ship foodstuffs to poor countries) according to data uncovered by a British newspaper, and aid critics have lambasted the habit of aid going to domestic companies of the donor state.

    In contrast, China’s aid largely consists of in-kind infrastructural developments – power plants, dams, roads – illustrating China’s faith in the role of the state to overcome development obstacles. Analysts have noted that China’s aid policy is not much different from Japan’s in the 1970s, linked to concessions and trade agreements. It is not difficult to understand the appeal of this sort of aid to African leaders, reaffirming their own role in societies.

    China’s structural differences

    The third factor is structural, both economically and institutionally: China, with its vast array of state-owned enterprises, is able to direct external investment in a more coordinated and direct manner. China’s multiple national oil companies rarely overlap or compete with each other in their overseas ventures. China’s natural resource ventures have been extremely effective at sourcing for its domestic consumption needs. The competitive advantage of putting state enterprises at the disposal of external policy is difficult to match for the free market economies of the West. This close state-enterprise association has some disadvantages, however: occasional anti-Chinese outbursts have indiscriminately targeted Chinese labourers and traders in Africa.

    Institutionally, the crucial role FOCAC plays in keeping Chinese centrality on the African continent is a lesson they have learnt from their regional neighbours in ASEAN: An intergovernmental platform where they set the tone and agenda is a mirror image of the ASEAN Plus arrangements in the Asia-Pacific. So too is their ability to work with anyone with common economic goals, a lesson too often disregarded even by proponents of “partnership not patronage” maxims. This has ensconced China in the heart of African elites, whose opinions of China’s engagement have been generally positive. African civil society voices are either muted or supportive of China (in another model taken from ASEAN, the Chinese established a China-Africa People’s Forum on the sidelines of FOCAC to engage civil society, much like the ASEAN People’s Forum).

    Given these problems, Western criticisms of China will continue to lack an impact in Africa. The key argument for democratization and commitments to human rights as necessary parts of good governance is unevenly applied, not effectively communicated, and economically intangible. The Western model of aid has not been an unqualified success. However, most crucially, there are significant structural differences between the US and China in their engagement with Africa that fundamentally affect the nature of relations between these parties, and in which China currently has the upper hand. With Africa rapidly developing, and China’s leaders fully understanding the imperatives of development given their own recent rise, the US will need to do significantly more to regain and retain its influence in the continent.

    About the Author

    Joel Ng is an associate research fellow at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. 

    Categories: Commentaries /

    Last updated on 07/08/2018

    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    Hillary Clinton’s visit to Africa, following the recently-concluded China-Africa Summit, is viewed as a competition for influence in Africa. However, those who criticise China’s expansion in Africa largely ignore the structural differences in economic engagement between the US and China with their African counterparts.

    Commentary

    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent nine-country tour of Africa has largely been viewed as following the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing in July. At the FOCAC summit, the fifth since 2000, China pledged US$20 billion in aid to various African projects across the continent, reinforcing Chinese centrality in Africa’s development aspirations.

    Chinese media made great play of China’s being Africa’s number one trading partner, with some $166 billion in trade with the continent in 2011, more than 16 times the level in 2000. The US is unable to match these numbers – its trade with Africa over the same period was just under $126 billion, according to the US Census Bureau. Instead, in Senegal, Clinton highlighted over $630 million in aid the US had pledged in a variety of development projects in just that state alone.

    Given these differences, the US has focused on commitments in other forms, especially its stated support for good governance and democratization. Clinton’s speech in Senegal mentioned no names, but she described America’s partnership with Africa as one “that adds value rather than extracts it” – widely seen as a dig at China’s sectoral emphasis on extractive industries such as mining and oil & gas in its trade with Africa. Earlier, during a visit to Zambia in 2011, Clinton had warned of a “new colonialism” in Africa, again interpreted as an indirect reference to China.

    Communication breakdown

    Western criticisms of China’s engagement, however, have failed to make an impact on the continent, for three reasons: Firstly, the Western supporters of human rights and good governance have failed to demonstrate clearly how the values they espouse for the continent have led to real economic growth. The saying that “You can’t eat democracy” has resonance precisely because of this failure.

    Aware of these shortcomings, Clinton acknowledged in her speech that the US “has not always done the best job promoting and explaining what we mean.” Similarly, Obama’s deeply symbolic first visit to Africa as president was to Ghana because of its strong democratization.

    Yet this rhetorical commitment can be difficult to reconcile with economic and security imperatives. Clinton’s stop in Uganda, a key security ally but with a controversial human rights record, symbolised the delicate balance, while the US has threatened to withdraw aid to Rwanda, which has been accused of supporting insurgents in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, for the democratization argument to gain real traction it will take more than just good public relations: the truly democratic states (and this in itself is a contentious issue), must economically perform visibly better than their more authoritarian neighbours, and this has not yet occurred. Until then, it remains a moral argument – a much harder sell in a post-colonial age.

    Differences in aid

    The second factor is that too often, aid has not had sufficient impact. The management and disbursement of aid has improved over the years, but it still has a legacy of failure to overcome, rooted in failed technocratic attempts of the 1960s–1980s. Aid also doesn’t translate often enough into economic growth. Aside from losses to corruption, much of aid promised simply does not reach the shores of Africa in monetary form. Two-thirds of American food aid in 2010-11 went to just three American companies (who then ship foodstuffs to poor countries) according to data uncovered by a British newspaper, and aid critics have lambasted the habit of aid going to domestic companies of the donor state.

    In contrast, China’s aid largely consists of in-kind infrastructural developments – power plants, dams, roads – illustrating China’s faith in the role of the state to overcome development obstacles. Analysts have noted that China’s aid policy is not much different from Japan’s in the 1970s, linked to concessions and trade agreements. It is not difficult to understand the appeal of this sort of aid to African leaders, reaffirming their own role in societies.

    China’s structural differences

    The third factor is structural, both economically and institutionally: China, with its vast array of state-owned enterprises, is able to direct external investment in a more coordinated and direct manner. China’s multiple national oil companies rarely overlap or compete with each other in their overseas ventures. China’s natural resource ventures have been extremely effective at sourcing for its domestic consumption needs. The competitive advantage of putting state enterprises at the disposal of external policy is difficult to match for the free market economies of the West. This close state-enterprise association has some disadvantages, however: occasional anti-Chinese outbursts have indiscriminately targeted Chinese labourers and traders in Africa.

    Institutionally, the crucial role FOCAC plays in keeping Chinese centrality on the African continent is a lesson they have learnt from their regional neighbours in ASEAN: An intergovernmental platform where they set the tone and agenda is a mirror image of the ASEAN Plus arrangements in the Asia-Pacific. So too is their ability to work with anyone with common economic goals, a lesson too often disregarded even by proponents of “partnership not patronage” maxims. This has ensconced China in the heart of African elites, whose opinions of China’s engagement have been generally positive. African civil society voices are either muted or supportive of China (in another model taken from ASEAN, the Chinese established a China-Africa People’s Forum on the sidelines of FOCAC to engage civil society, much like the ASEAN People’s Forum).

    Given these problems, Western criticisms of China will continue to lack an impact in Africa. The key argument for democratization and commitments to human rights as necessary parts of good governance is unevenly applied, not effectively communicated, and economically intangible. The Western model of aid has not been an unqualified success. However, most crucially, there are significant structural differences between the US and China in their engagement with Africa that fundamentally affect the nature of relations between these parties, and in which China currently has the upper hand. With Africa rapidly developing, and China’s leaders fully understanding the imperatives of development given their own recent rise, the US will need to do significantly more to regain and retain its influence in the continent.

    About the Author

    Joel Ng is an associate research fellow at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. 

    Categories: Commentaries

    Last updated on 07/08/2018

    Back to top

    Terms of Use | Privacy Statement
    Copyright © S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. All rights reserved.
    This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy. Learn more
    OK
    Latest Book
    CO12153 | Great Power Rivalry in Africa: Economic Engagement Holds Key

    Synopsis

    Hillary Clinton’s visit to Africa, following the recently-concluded China-Africa ...
    more info