Do Africa’s emerging nations know the secret of China’s economic miracle?

Sino-African two-way trade hit US$204 billion in 2018, but is it economics or politics that is driving development on the giant continent?

The absolute authority of China’s Communist Party has long been a lure for some African rulers but observers say they are now more interested in Beijing’s billions

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China has financed dozens of major infrastructure projects across Africa, like the Benguela Railway in Angola. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:00am, 13 Oct 2019Updated: 10:08pm, 13 Oct 2019

As much of the world focused on the military hardware paraded by Beijing on October 1 to mark 70 years of Communist Party rule, for some African nations the celebrations perhaps also provided a glimpse of the success they might one day achieve – by following China’s political and economic models.

After two decades of rapid growth in two-way trade – to US$204 billion in 2018 – China is now Africa’s largest trading partner, according to figures from Beijing.

The pair have also become increasingly linked through Beijing’s ambitious trade and infrastructure development plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative, which has led to the construction of numerous China-funded projects, like motorways, power dams and railways, across the African continent.

But China’s influence goes far beyond economics. For decades it has had close ties to political groups that were involved in African nations’ struggles for independence, like the National Liberation Front of Angola and the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, which is now the ruling party in the southern nation.

Professor Martin Rupiya, head of innovation and training at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes in Durban, South Africa, said that one of the reasons for those links was that China regarded itself as a former third world and colonised nation.

“China had strong links to Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and other African states that had to go through liberation in achieve statehood,” he said.

“That relationship was extended to South Africa after its independence.”

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