Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BEIJING527
2009-03-02 07:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

PRC LAUNCHES PR CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA

Tags:  PREL PGOV EAID EINV ETRD AO CH KE MI ML MP 
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DE RUEHBJ #0527/01 0610743
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O 020743Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2584
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 000527 

SIPDIS

STATE PASS USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID EINV ETRD AO CH KE MI ML MP
RW, SF, SG, TZ, UG, ZA
SUBJECT: PRC LAUNCHES PR CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA

REF: A. 2008 BEIJING 03996

B. BEIJING 286

C. BEIJING 288

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson. Reasons
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 000527

SIPDIS

STATE PASS USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID EINV ETRD AO CH KE MI ML MP
RW, SF, SG, TZ, UG, ZA
SUBJECT: PRC LAUNCHES PR CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA

REF: A. 2008 BEIJING 03996

B. BEIJING 286

C. BEIJING 288

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson. Reasons 1.
4 (b/d).

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) President Hu Jintao's February 10-17 trip to Africa
capped a series of recent high-level visits intended to
burnish China's image in Africa, according to Chinese and
African contacts in Beijing. Our contacts contend that China
is doing a great deal to assist Africa. At the same time,
they acknowledge that China's image in Africa has suffered
from the business practices of some Chinese firms and China's
limited engagement with African civil society. China's
recent PR offensive in Africa suggests the government is
increasingly aware of its image problem and determined to
demonstrate China's interests in Africa go beyond extracting
natural resources and profits. Scholarships to African
students and the establishment of Confucius Institutes are
two tools of "soft power" increasingly used by China to
improve its image in Africa. End Summary.


2. (C) In recent weeks, PolOff and EconOff discussed China's
engagement with Africa with a number of Chinese scholars and
African diplomats and students living in Beijing, including
Ministry of State Security-affiliated China Institutes of
Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) Institute of
Asia and Africa Studies scholars Zeng Qiang and Xu Weizhong,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Africa scholars
Yang Lihua, Liu Naiya and He Wenping, MFA-affiliated China
Institute of International Studies (CIIS) scholar Wang
Hongyi, Rwandan diplomat Emile Rwagasana and African PhD
students Guillaume Moumouni and Biggest Mundele. This report

is based on those discussions, as well Chinese press reports
on recent high-level visits.

A Flurry of High-Level Visits to Africa
--------------


3. (SBU) President Hu Jintao's February 10-17 trip to Africa
was the highlight of a flurry of Chinese high-level visits to
the continent in the first six weeks of 2009. In addition to
Hu, who traveled to Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius
(with an earlier stop in Saudi Arabia),Minister of Commerce
Chen Deming visited Kenya, Angola and Zambia January 12-19.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi traveled to Rwanda, Uganda,
South Africa and Malawi January 13-17, continuing an MFA
tradition of making Africa the destination of the Foreign
Minister's first overseas trip of the year. On all of these
trips, Chinese leaders made a concerted effort to highlight
China's assistance to Africa. During his trip, President Hu
officially opened a malaria prevention center in Mali,
visited Chinese aid projects in Senegal, attended the
official opening of a Chinese-constructed national sports
stadium in Tanzania and visited a Chinese cultural center in
Mauritius. At an MFA briefing before Hu's trip, Assistant
Foreign Minister Zhai Jun stressed that "none of these four
African countries is rich in energy and resources, which
clearly shows that China-Africa relations are not only energy
resources relations."


4. (SBU) Although Commerce Minister Chen visited three
relatively resource-rich countries, he also sought to
demonstrate that China's engagement with Africa goes beyond
energy and resources. In a January 21 interview with Xinhua
News Agency, Chen offered a number of statistics to highlight
China's growing assistance to Africa (which will be covered
in greater detail septel).


5. (C) CICIR scholar Zeng Qiang told us these recent
high-level visits reinforced the image of China as a friend
and supporter of Africa. He argued that one advantage China
enjoyed over the United States was that China has a larger
number of senior-level officials, including the nine members
of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing
Committee, who make regular visits to Africa to highlight
China-Africa cooperation. As an example, he cited China's
top legislator Wu Bangguo, who visited five African countries
November 3-14, 2008, his fourth visit to Africa as National
People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman.

China's State-Run Media Reinforces the Message

BEIJING 00000527 002 OF 004


-------------- -


6. (SBU) China's state-run media provided prominent coverage
of President Hu's Africa trip, reinforcing the government's
message of Chinese assistance to Africa. A front-page story
in China Daily's February 17 edition highlighted Hu's keynote
speech in Tanzania, where he pledged China would continue to
increase its aid to Africa despite the global financial
crisis. The front-page story of the February 16 state-run
Global Times hailed Hu's trip as "the first visit of a leader
of one of the world's great powers to these relatively
resource-poor African countries since the beginning of the
global financial crisis, countries that have practically been
forgotten in the West." Quoting favorable African media
coverage, the article said "China will not toss aside its
African allies during the global economic recession" and
"considering China's large amount of technical and financial
assistance provided to Africa, African countries should
consider China its number one partner." During the MFA's
official readout of Hu's trip February 26, African Affairs
Department West Africa Division Deputy Director Zhao Yong
stressed the "traditional friendship" between China and
Africa rather than the degree of partnership. In keeping
with standard party lines, he emphasized the growth of
"win-win cooperation" and mutual understanding amongst
developing nations.

Concerns about Chinese Firms' Hurting China's Image
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Many Chinese officials and scholars offer a rosy view
of China's engagement with Africa, at least in public,
emphasizing the mutual benefits of China's investment, trade
and aid. However, as reported ref C, a number of Chinese
officials and scholars now acknowledge that China's
engagement with Africa has not been entirely positive.
Responding to growing criticism of China's economic
engagement with Africa, the government encouraged think tanks
to research and report on this image problem in the months
leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Reviews of African
press and NGOs revealed complaints and criticisms directed at
Chinese companies (mostly smaller firms new to Africa) for
exporting low-quality goods to Africa, paying African workers
low wages, hiring few local workers, and polluting the local
environment (ref C).


8. (C) Chinese scholarly research on China's image in Africa
presented to the Chinese government helped galvanize
senior-level attention to the practices of Chinese companies
in Africa, though CASS scholar Yang Lihua told us that
China's efforts to improve corporate behavior had begun in
earnest in 2007, when President Hu pressed Chinese companies
in Namibia to respect local laws and show greater social
responsibility. Corporate social responsibility remained a
prominent theme of recent high-level visits. In his February
16 speech in Tanzania, President Hu encouraged Chinese firms
operating in Africa "to shoulder more social responsibility
and forge friendly ties with local communities." In Mali, he
stressed that a PRC-financed bridge across the Niger River
would rely primarily on local labor, employing between 500
and 1000 local workers. While visiting a road project in
Kenya January 14, Commerce Minister Chen said "foreign
projects are related to our national image and reputation,
and the contractor shall overcome difficulties with a high
sense of responsibility and mission."


9. (C) Government-supported organizations that promote
Chinese investment in Africa, such as the China-Africa
Business Council (CABC) and China-Africa Development Fund
(CADF),are also making efforts to promote corporate social
responsibility and ensure investment projects abide by local
laws and are environmentally sustainable (ref C). The
Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) is also doing its part to
promote improved Chinese business behavior in Africa. In
August 2007, MOFCOM held a seminar that brought together 67
Chinese companies working in Africa. According to MOFCOM
African Affairs Department official Lin Pei, Chinese
companies at the seminar had signed a document in which they
committed "to provide quality goods and services, provide
more local employment opportunities, respect local laws,
observe internationally recognized business ethics,
understand and respect local religious beliefs and customs
and actively participate in philanthropy in the fields of
education, health and environmental protection." CASS' Yang
said the proposal was a step in the right direction but
lacked an enforcement mechanism. She predicted China would

BEIJING 00000527 003 OF 004


continue to face public relations problems as more and more
Chinese firms go to Africa. CIIS scholar Wang Hongyi
(protect) has recommended that China adopt a foreign
investment law requiring Chinese companies investing abroad
to respect local labor laws and protect the environment. In
his view, China was the primary beneficiary of its engagement
with Africa. He criticized China for repeating the mistakes
of European colonizers, arguing that China's investment in
Africa was not benefiting African society enough. He
suggested China do more to ensure that its investments in
Africa improved Africans' living conditions. However, Wang
acknowledged that his views were not shared by many
government officials and, as a result, had not been passed up
the bureaucratic chain to senior officials.


10. (C) Another complaint reported ref C is the tendency for
some Chinese firms to bring workers from China to carry out
infrastructure projects, thus depriving African workers of
job opportunities. CASS Senior Researcher Liu Naiya has
advocated for Chinese firms to outsource some of their
production to African countries where labor costs are lower
than in China. Another CASS Africa scholar, He Wenping, said
Chinese leaders were aware of this issue and noted that some
companies were already responding. She cited the examples of
the China National Petroleum Corporation, which sends large
numbers of its Sudanese employees to China for training, and
the China Road and Bridge Company, another big state-owned
enterprise involved in a range of infrastructure projects in
Africa. For their Kenya operations, 95% of their workforce
is made up of Kenyans. However, He also pointed out that
hiring indigenous workers was easier for large state-owned
enterprises. Smaller Chinese companies new to Africa that
base their business models on low-cost bids and fast
completion times do not have the time, expertise, or
resources to train local staff, relying instead on Chinese
technical workers to complete projects quickly and
efficiently.

Limited Engagement with Civil Society
--------------


11. (C) While China generally enjoys strong relations with
African governments, some Chinese scholars point to China's
limited engagement with civil society as a weakness in its
foreign policy. CICIR scholar Xu Weizhong noted that China
had succeeded in establishing close ties with high-level
government officials in Africa but had been much less
successful in developing ties with African NGOs and civil
society organizations (CSOs). He said that he had suggested
to Chinese officials more contact with NGOs and CSOs as a way
to improve China's image among ordinary Africans. Xu said
some Chinese officials realized the need for China to reach
out to ordinary Africans, citing the Chinese ambassador's
participation in the China-Africa Dialogue on Civil Society
held in Kenya in 2008. Nevertheless, Xu acknowledged that
most Chinese officials gave little thought to supporting
African civil society and few Chinese companies in Africa
were involved in philanthropic activities. CASS' He Wenping,
who participated in the 2008 Dialogue, had a somewhat more
optimistic view. She noted that the Dialogue participants
had publicly called for stand-alone regular civil society
dialogue, and that with the passage of time there would be a
trend for this civil society dialogue to feed in to
China-Africa government-to-government relations. She was
certain there would be no civil society engagement in the
China-Africa ministerial meeting scheduled for November 2009
in Cairo, but considered it possible that the subsequent
ministerial in 2012 might include civil society
representatives.

Scholarships and Confucius Institutes: Soft Power Tools
-------------- --------------


12. (C) One of the tools of China's "soft power" is
scholarships to African students to study in China. By the
end of 2008, more than 20,000 African students had studied in
China on Chinese government scholarships. Guillaume Moumouni
and Biggest Mundele (protect) are two of the approximately
1200 African students annually who have received full
scholarships from the Chinese government to study in China.
Both are PhD students at Peking University, one of China's
most prestigious universities. Moumouni, a student from
Benin who is writing his PhD dissertation on China's policy
of "non-interference" in Africa, told PolOff that competition
for the scholarships was intense. Of the hundreds of
applicants in Benin, only 23 had been selected. Mundele, a

BEIJING 00000527 004 OF 004


student from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) pursuing
a PhD in economics, said more than 100 DRC students a year
received full scholarships to study in China. The
scholarships not only covered tuition, airfare, and room and
board but also included a modest monthly living allowance of
approximately USD300. The students lived in a dormitory with
other graduate students and said they enjoyed good relations
with their classmates, both Chinese and foreign. After
completing their studies, they planned to return to their
home countries to teach at a university, although both
acknowledged that their Chinese language skills and
experience in China could help them land relatively
well-paying and prestigious positions in government or
business.


13. (C) Not surprisingly, both students have relatively
positive views of China's engagement with Africa. Moumouni
argued that China appealed to African countries as a fellow
developing country that had not colonized Africa, in contrast
to Western countries whose legacy of colonial rule in Africa
continued to color African views of the West. He said
African consumers generally had a positive view of China
because they now enjoyed low-cost consumer goods that
previously had not been available or had been too expensive.
The two students acknowledged that some African manufacturers
saw China as a competitive threat that could put them out of
business, and workers were critical of China for paying low
wages, violating labor laws and bringing in Chinese workers
rather than hiring locals. However, both defended China's
investment in Africa as critical for the continent's
development. "If China does not invest in DRC's natural
resources, then who will?" asked Mundele, who said the DRC's
natural resources would be wasted without Chinese investment.
Moumouni said Chinese government scholarships to African
students had not only improved China's image in Africa but
had also created a cadre of well-educated, Chinese-speaking
Africans who have returned to their home countries with
positive views of China and a familiarity with Chinese
culture and practices.


14. (C) Another tool of China's soft power is
government-funded Chinese language and cultural institutions
known as Confucius Institutes. Beijing-based Rwandan
diplomat Emile Rwagasana told PolOff that China planned to
open a Confucius Institute at the Kigali Institute of
Education in September 2009 (ref B). In his view, China's
active promotion of its language and culture was an effective
way to market itself and improve its image in Africa.

Comment
--------------


15. (C) China counts on decades of close political ties with
African governments and its surge in aid, trade, and
investment ties with the continent to secure its economic
interests in access to African natural resources and markets
and its political interests in a large bloc of countries that
will support China in international fora. That said, Beijing
understands that the inevitable frictions resulting from a
more intense economic relationship mean it can no longer take
for granted a positive reputation in Africa. Beijing will be
even more sensitive to its image in the run-up to the
triennial China-Africa ministerial meeting planned for this
fall in Egypt. As noted ref C, this image consciousness
could provide increased motivation for China to pursue
greater cooperation with African regional organizations,
NGOs, and other donor nations )- including the United States
)- in promoting transparency, good governance, sustainable
development, and long-term stability in Africa.
PICCUTA