US Attempts at Countering Chinese Influence in Africa.

By Eric Murray

The US is planning to take further steps to create new instruments and institutions in a bid to strengthen the African Consensus as a major mechanism to check the growing economic influence of China in Africa. Until the U.S. gets to accept China as legitimate competitor and partner in Africa, relations between the two will remain fundamentally insecure.

The US and Growing Chinese Influence in Africa

There are different ways of looking at the decline of US power in the world, prominent among which is the rising influence of China in Africa. And the US can do very little about it. True, the Chinese are building their Navy, a historic precursor to expanded ambitions and global conflict. But the US can check that by continuing to build its military well ahead of Beijing. However, it can’t do the same, or it is unable to arrest the growing influence of China in Africa. These days it’s impossible to think about America and its future role in the world without also thinking about China’s growing influence, if not domination, in Africa.. The United States can become the leading player in a pluralistic international system rather than a “hyperpower” or hegemon, whose persuasiveness extends only as far as its military reach? Nobody denies that the United States is uniquely equipped to wreak physical destruction anywhere it wants. However, in economic terms and soft power particularly in Africa, the US is clearly on the defensive. According to US officials “China has become a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals” in Africa. This may be true, but the real question is how does the US fare any better and how is it responding to the so-called China threat? Unable to take the lead it is forced to countering Chinese influence in the continent. And yet it doesn’t have a coherent strategy, rather what we see is a disparate but quickly assembled set of measures. These include the following:

The operationalization of the New US Africa Command/AFRICOM/, to which the Peoples Daily of China referred to as ‘unpleasant and arrogant’. Displacing China from oil rich regions such as Sudan, Libya through war and Angola, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria through diplomacy could be part of the plan. Another consideration is the war on terror, which also helps to control oceans and main ports around the continent. As one US official puts it” we need a sea-denial capability of our own that comes with US Navy Seal control.” And this is on the top of the existing military bases around the world. America currently maintains more than seven hundred bases on foreign soil, including in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Another side of the strategy is political and propaganda warfare. And Western narrative characterizes China as a new imperialist power in Africa. Not just the content but even the tone of this characterization can resemble the emanations from China hawks in the United States. This doesn’t preclude a counter offensive strategy on the Chinese economic model and its relevance to Africa. A good example being the Article of the US drafted African Consensus Resolution adopted on April 27, 2011 by the NGO Forum in Banjul, the Gambia. The resolution underscores Africa have largely ignored traditional knowledge in favor of imported economic models (such as the Chinese model), which are often unconnected to realities on the African continent. 

By actively lobbying in favor of  the so-called African Consensus/AC/, US authorities are working hard to deprive Chinese companies in Africa of their main competitive advantage- low cost of manufacturing. The modalities of the AC include reinforcing by law high technological standards for economic projects of foreign companies in Africa. Besides, African states will be obliged to use ‘clean technology’ which can be provided mainly by the USA and other leading Western countries. Experts agree that the African Consensus is being developed as an alternative to the so-called Beijing Consensus, which was meant to unite Africa with China economically and politically in exchange of investments and other financial help. The US is planning to take further steps to create new instruments and institutions in a bid to strengthen the African Consensus as a major mechanism to check the growing economic influence of China in Africa. As a reviewing authority Washington is prepared to establish a new NGO- the Institute of African Consensus. The would-be institute will be granted full right to appeal directly to African governments, leading world powers and international organisations, including courts and core international NGOs on issues related to the economic dimensions of the AC.It could serve as a policy outfit and advocacy tool for anti-Chinese and pro-Western interests in Africa.

As recently as June 2011,the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a press conference in Lusaka, said that China is guilty of carrying out “new colonialism” in Africa, adding that she didn’t think China was a role model for governance. Fair enough.  The other component of the strategy directly flows from this assertion i.e. supporting democracy and popular uprisings that could eventually weaken and displace Beijing’s foothold in the continent as it is seen in North Africa. Compounding this is US aggressive diplomacy aimed at several African countries. The US refocuses its efforts on developing African partnerships in order to further establish itself as a valued international partner different from China. To this effect the US focuses on two groups of countries in the continent. The first group is oil rich African countries such as Nigeria, Libya, Angola and Algeria, all member states of OPEC, the cartel of oil producing countries, whose joint actions in setting production quotas have a profound effect on the price of oil. The second is on politically high impact African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Nonetheless, US strategy doesn’t exclude working together with Beijing. That is what the US-China-Africa Trilateral Dialogue was meant to achieve. Until the U.S. gets to accept China as legitimate competitor and partner relations between the two will remain fundamentally insecure.

Apart from countering Chinese influence in Africa using a set of measures described above, Washington seeks to have an interface with Beijing on issues that matter to Africa. The US seeks common ground with Beijing on some porgrammes considered to be beneficial to Africa, including humanitarian aid, malaria and HIV/AIDS initiatives, and peacekeeping operations. This is not only for humanitarian reasons but also to further encourage what the US refers to as responsible international behavior. Positively influencing the behavior of Beijing will form one component of the strategy of containment. Clearly, Africa has emerged as the major battle ground for the US and China. However the battle ground is largely characterized by the deployment and effective use of “soft power”. Nobody thinks the US has an effective strategy of countering China. America’s ability to construct social, economic, or political institutions in Africa that could serve as a brick wall against newly emerging economic powers is remotely as impressive. As they say, this is the problem of “soft power”.