Non-interference With The Pragmatic Cooperation: An Analysis Of China's Soft Power In Africa

From a development scholar's perspective, two aspects of China Africa relations have attracted attention:The comparative perspective, which asks about why the African countries and China have developed so differently over the last 30 years, while the bilateral perspective looks at the dynamics between China and Africa and its effects for development. For this paper, which focuses on China's attraction to Africa, and its resulting soft power, both aspects are relevant.The comparative perspective looks at the different institutions and policies and attraction that successful development in China yields to Africa. This paper deals with this in the following chapters and sections:The Chapter on legitimacy of governance looks at the characteristics of the different political systems between China and most of Africa in the different stages of development. The next part which compares the political systems focuses largely on the questions of transferability. Rather than looking which aspects of China's development experience are relevant for Africa, it analyzes China's commitment to multi-polarity in its relations with Africa. The comparison between the terms Beijing consensus and Washington consensus shows differences not in terms of contents but more importantly, its respective claims for universality. Attraction from bilateral cooperation in many ways relates to the historic development of China Africa relations. The chapter on History looks at China's support for African liberation movements and its commitment to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony. But as China-Africa relations don't stop with history, the paper continues with the most defining feature of today's China Africa relations, the economic cooperation. Besides trade and investment, this paper explains the attraction of resources-for-infrastructure deals.The following discussion on culture splits into two parts. First, the attraction of Chinese culture in terms of public culture, traditions and religion and culture and society and second, the attraction that stems from the respect the China shows for the culture of the partner country. Moving on in the bilateral relationship, the chapter on Aid points at the differences between Western and Chinese aid to Africa. Especially it focuses on the shift from economic development to basic social needs, and how has China successfully stepped in to fill this gap. It goes on to discuss the conditionality that Western donors attach to their aid to Africa and the attraction of China's alternative approach. A final point which leads throughout the paper like a red thread is the Chinese non-interference policy, its implications and attraction.On the evaluation side, this paper takes public opinion as a proxy for soft power, and compares several opinion surveys on Africa views towards China. This part concludes with a short selection of case studies that illustrate how opinions towards China in Africa are formed. This paper is interested in the reasons for intensifying China Africa relations in recent years, and identifies the role of China's growing soft power. The factors it proposes for triggering this growing attraction are China's pragmatism, non interference and a commitment to multi polarity.