China woos African leaders to Beijing at FOCAC
…Zambia included
Amb. Anthony Mukwita
3rd Sept. 2024
It’s probably the biggest story on the globe today and it is unfolding in Beijing, the capital of China where President Xi Jinping is meeting with 54 heads of states from the continent of Africa.
The meeting is dubbed FOCAC, simply put a uni-multilateral grand annual event hosted by China to strengthen trade and diplomatic relations with African counter-parts.
It also, sort of provides a multipolar geopolitical spectrum that shifts away power from the traditional West to the East as power struggles continue globally for either friends, ideologies or resources.
In my latest 2023 geopolitical book ´China in Africa the Zambia story´ I discuss the relationship between China and Africa through the lens of Zambia at length providing the necessary insights one may need to understand the importance of the meeting that starts in Beijing on 4th September for three days.
The leaders can then return home or proceed to the UNGA or United Nations General Assembly in New York, hopefully with a feel-good story for their citizens that are dying for some good news, especially in countries like Zambia besieged by countless hours of load shedding or power blackouts.
Our own President Hichilema is among African leaders attending the meeting, seeking to see if they can snatch one or two corporation agreements in the areas of energy, agriculture and or
Ahead of FOCAC, President Xi has already held side line meetings with the Presidents or Eretria, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Seychelles, Kenya, Chads and Malawi including the Chair of the African Union (AU) but no meeting has been announced of Zambia yet.
FOCAC is different and is according to pundits more attractive to African leaders compared to similar so called “Africa plus one” summits because China rolls out the red carpet and full honours to every leader. President Xi also meets individually with all African leaders on a one on one.
This is a different kind of treatment compared to the ´distance´ group experience they get from America, Japan and France, Russia and other “Africa plus one” meetings.
Unlike its predecessors, such as TICAD, FOCAC according to analysts, FOCAC was not framed through a traditional lens of aid.
Instead, “it quickly evolved to operate at a higher level, with successive funding commitments and an expanding scope to respond to African demands.”
Analysts add that, “combined with eye-catching Chinese infrastructure projects and the other deals that marked the first decades of the early 21st century, established FOCAC as the most important of African summits.”
The dilemma, however, is that albeit it is Sino-Africa summits are hosted either in Beijing, Washington DC, Paris and Tokyo, not Pretoria, Cairo to Lusaka, how then can they be African summits? Who benefits from the media glow?
Another observer wrote that, “until Africa takes control and reshapes the Africa Plus One summit to its own ends, FOCAC is likely the best it’ll get. The question is: how long will that be good enough, and which African ambitions will survive the wait?”
My personal bite is, why does not Africa take up these initiatives personally, nurture them and host such important summits on a rotational basis in African capitals—just spit balling.
African summit in Livingstone co hosted by Zambia and Zimbabwe, aint that a kick in the head?
Africa and African leaders must resist the temptation of being held by the hand as if they are children or horses being taken to the stream for a gulp of water. Africa is not a country.
Ofcourse no country is an island or must pretend to be one, but we don’t need other nations to help fix our electricity problems, broken agriculture chain or dilapidated infrastructure.
We must also be wary of the fact that some of the monies pledged at these “Africa plus one” summits is old money dressed as new money as it gets increasingly hard to keep track of the pledges.
China wins on this score though as it reaffirms its position of endearment to Africa by calling itself a ´developing nation’ like Africa and not the world factory it is.
It will be interesting to see what corporation agreements President Hichilema will bring back to us after delaying his trip to Beijing following his election in 2021 against his own better judgement.
In October next month, Zambia celebrates 60 years of warm relations with China on the back of a myriad infrastructure developments.
—
Amb. Anthony Mukwita is a published author whose books are available locally in Bookworld, Grey Matter and online on Amazon.