Outside In | Xi Jinping’s visit shows why investment in Africa suits China’s long-term planning

David Dodwell says that while one may only see problems associated with investing in Africa in the near term, plans such as the Belt and Road Initiative were built with the longer view in mind, and from that perspective, Africa’s natural resources and young human capital look to pay off later

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A Senegal resident welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dakar on July. 21. Xi arrived in Africa on a four-nation visit, seeking deeper military and economic ties. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00pm, 27 Jul 2018Updated: 10:30pm, 27 Jul 2018

If last week’s love-fest with Europe’s leaders was not emphatic enough, Xi Jinping’s travels this week through Africa, culminating with the BRICs summit in South Africa, showed determination to set China’s own trade agenda, to set it in its own time, and to set it far from Washington’s Twitter-storms.

The good news is that the Chinese president remains firm in his high-profile commitments to the rules-based multilateral trading system, and to steady liberalisation of China’s economy. The bad news is that this is still mainly talk, and that the reforms needed to address the concerns of international businesses are still awaited.

At the BRICS summit on Thursday, Xi was clear: “We are facing a choice between cooperation, not confrontation, between opening up versus closed doors, between mutual benefit and a beggar-they-neighbour approach … Openness and cooperation are the sure way to achieve progress. Trade wars should be rejected because there can be no winners.

“The current international order is not a perfect one, but if it is rules-based, is equitable, and prefers win-win outcomes, such an international order should not be dismantled.”

Despite the commitment to the status quo, the warnings are clear – and well-received by an audience from the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa): China is in the business of changing the balance of global governance. Xi talked of this being “a critical historic juncture” involving a “difficult and painful transition”, in which “every country has an equal right to development”.

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Watch: Xi Jinping reveals his economic plans at the Boao Forum in April 2018

Outside In | Xi Jinping’s visit shows why investment in Africa suits China’s long-term planning