Can China score a new win in Africa with Xi Jinping’s ‘Belt and Road’ plan?
But political instability and security concerns complicate projects on continent
Long before President Xi Jinping conceived his ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative”, his predecessor Hu Jintao came up with an extensive development strategy for China to engage Africa.
At the time, Hu’s plan to expand China’s involvement in Africa was met with immense scepticism both on the ground and by political observers. But Beijing steadily made inroads, its trade with the continent growing twentyfold in little more than a decade. By 2009, China had surpassed the United States as Africa’s biggest trading partner.
Although Africa was not part of the belt and road plan when it was first proposed by Xi in 2013, Beijing has recently accelerated its push to include the continent. And compared with the other regions included in the initiative – such as the Middle East and Central Asia – China already has a solid economic and geostrategic foothold.
And although there are still doubts about the belt and road plan, these existing ties give the initiative a better chance of success in Africa than in most other regions, including Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Indian subcontinent, according to diplomatic and economic pundits.
“China has played a major role in addressing Africa’s inadequate infrastructure while managing to maintain rather close ties with most African nations,” Xu Weizhong, director of the Institute of African Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said.
“China-African cooperation has set a fine example for the belt and road initiative,” Xu said.