From Beijing to Cape Town: Spotlighting China’s Economic Domination in Africa

By Debby Salsabila

The Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), also known as the China-Africa Summit, is a cooperation forum held every three years to bridge the development of cooperation between China and the African continent as a whole. In the meeting held this year, President Xi Jinping promised financial support of up to $51 billion dollars. This financial support includes infrastructure development aimed at creating at least one million jobs on the continent. Not only that, participants agreed to the Beijing Declaration which became the guideline for the Beijing Action Plan for 2025-2027 (Chen & Cash, 2024). Hence, this issue is crucial to highlight China's modernization efforts in the Global South.
Responding to the increasingly intensive cooperation, African leaders welcomed China's assistance to develop regional development. Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, stated that their government is waiting for the expansion of cooperation areas to strengthen relations between Tanzania and China (Moritsugu & Pronczuk, 2024). To meet the demand, Beijing prioritizes structural transformation to develop economic industrialization and expand cooperation in the agricultural sector. However, this cooperation becomes more critical when considering the amount of foreign debt of African countries in general. By the end of 2024. several African countries are the largest debt borrowers from China with figures reaching $ 191 billion throughout 2006 to 2021 (Al Jazeera, 2024). Not only that, these countries also have debts in multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, which gives the governments more burden.
Meanwhile, Beijing believes that strengthening and expanding cooperation with African countries is a very promising step. With the provision of financial assistance allocated in Yuan, China is trying to strengthen the internationalization of its domestic currency (Chen & Cash, 2024). Not only that, China has invested in more than 30 clean energy projects that focus on nuclear technology cooperation with African countries. This indicates an effort to expand market accessibility while securing potential and sustainable cooperation. Furthermore, China appears to be strengthening ties with local companies that can help run various clean energy megaprojects, such as Botswana Power Corporation (Xinhua, 2024). With this, Beijing is trying to pursue the need for raw materials that can support infrastructure development.
Responding to the forum between China and Africa, Antonio Guterres as UN Secretary-General expressed his concerns regarding the accessibility of African countries to foreign debt relief. Until now, African countries have found it difficult to gain access to debt relief, causing social unrest to maintain the economic stability (Chen & Cash, 2024). Putting aside his worries, Guterres stated that Beijing's move is one of the right development policies to initiate industrialization on the continent. Beijing's move is indeed one of the implications of strengthening cooperation between Southern countries. Indeed, this forum is an important instrument for Beijing to improve its diplomatic relations amidst the decline in domestic economic growth.
Thus, the 2024 China-African Summit is a historical trail for both parties to increase cooperation in various fields, especially infrastructure and clean energy, in ensuring increased accessibility to the bilateral market. However, the increasingly intense cooperation has led to concerns about the increasing burden of foreign debt of African countries, although Beijing has not explicitly stated anything about debt payments. Therefore, it is important to implement the negotiated Action Plan transparently.
References
Chen, L., & Cesh, J. (2024). China offers Africa $51 billion in fresh funding, promises a million jobs. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/china-deepen-industrial-agricultural-trade-investment-ties-with-africa-2024-09-05/
Moritsugu, K., & Pronczuk, M. (2024). Xi offers African leaders more aid as China challenges US-led global order. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/china-africa-focac-forum-summit-xi-fef65ceff06876a1acd578cfe6c1798a
Xinhua. (2024). China-Africa cooperation empowers African countries’ drive toward modernization. Www.gov.cn. https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202409/04/content_WS66d7c6fdc6d0868f4e8ea908.html
Al Jazeera. (2024, September 5). China’s Xi promises one million jobs for Africa. Al Jazeera; Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/9/5/chinas-xis-promises-one-million-jobs-for-africa#:~:text=China%27s%20President%20Xi%20Jinping%20stands%20with%20leaders%20from