China-Africa summit: The tactics behind President Xi Jinping’s red-carpet welcome

More than 50 African leaders have been welcomed by China to Beijing this week for a conference to improve relations at a time when there is an increase in political and economic unrest around the world.

According to Macharia Munene, a professor of international relations at the University of Nairobi, “it pertains to their vanities.” The leaders received a red carpet embrace that included pleasure by dancers in bright costumes.

The leaders ‘ perceptions that the meeting was an equal ‘ had been carefully choreographed.

Before the mountain, many of them, including Kenya’s William Ruto and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, met with their Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in one-on-one meetings and were given tour of Beijing and other places at the heart of China’s growth.

As Prof Munene puts it, China’s goal is to show American officials that” we are in the same boat, we are all subjects of American imperialism”.

Paul Frimpong, senior producer of the Ghana-based Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory, says that Western capabilities- as well as oil-rich Gulf states- are trying to meet China’s effect in Africa.

He tells the BBC,” There is a strong interest and opposition in and around Africa’s possible.”

Cobus van Staden, co-founder of the China-Global South Project, writes that China goes out of its way to emphasise its own status as a developing country, signalling solidarity with Africa and the rest of the Global South.

” It prevents the grimness of the US and EU’s continued support focus with its attendant conditionality and preaching,” he continues.

Over the last two decades, China’s politics has paid off. Out of all the countries in the world, it has risen to be Africa’s largest buying partner.

Data from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) shows that a fifth of Africa’s exports go to China, the bulk of which includes metals, mineral products and fuel. Since 2001, the export have quadrupled in US dollars.

For American states, China is also the” second largest cause of goods” of manufactured goods and equipment, according to the IMF.

But the balance of trade, in most cases, facilitates China tremendously.

In his intergovernmental meeting with President Xi, Mr. Ramaphosa made an effort to address this issue.

The president of South Africa stated that” we would like to handle the structure of our business and reduce the business deficit.”

In a subsequent joint statement, it was stated that” China showed it was ready to boost career development by citing personnel conferences for Taiwanese companies to promote local employment in South Africa.”

Kenya, on the other hand, is requesting more breaks despite a sizable debt that consumes almost two-thirds of its annual income and has recently sparked protests as a result of the government’s attempt to raise new taxes to pay off the finances gap.

Mr Ruto hopes to secure funding for various infrastructure projects, including the completion of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR ) to connect Kenya’s coast to neighbouring Uganda, the building of roads and dams, the establishment of a pharmaceutical park and a technology-driven transport system for the capital, Nairobi.

China stopped funding the contentious SGR four years ago after connecting Nairobi to the port town of Mombasa, which caused rail lines to end in a discipline outside the pool area of Naivasha.

As a major bilateral supplier to many African countries, China has often come under scrutiny for its deals, particularly in recent years when some African countries, including Ghana, Zambia and Ethiopia, suffered debt problems.

Bill sustainability is a topic of conversation at every major forum on Chinese-African relations, according to Mr. Frimpong, and it’s good to be at the most recent summit as well.

The international forces are driven by their own interests, and the debt crisis serves as a reminder that American states need to increase their economies and finances to lessen their reliance on them.

This is especially true given that the IMF predicts that China’s expansion will continue to slow, and it is advised that African nations can adapt by promoting regional economic integration and designing structural reforms to boost local income.

Most importantly, as Dr. Van Staden points out, African leaders must “overcome the leather rope feature of these delegations to create their own offers, set their own conditions, and throw their own events.”