The Political Economy Of China-Africa Relations Historical Overview

Contacts between China and Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular which had began in the second half of the twentieth century recently attracted attentions of academicians, politicians and media at large and led to different interpretations. These views ranged from mutual support to China's'disguised neo-colonialist'adventure. However, it was found that relations between China and Africa in general were reflected in terms of complementary mutual support both politically and economically. This paper argues that relations between China and Ethiopia in the first three decades, following the founding of the People's Republic of China were dominated by mutual support with occasional suspicions and mistrust. Recently they were able to develop successful political and economic linkages and had been reinforcing China-Africa ties within the context of contemporary international relations.The focus of this study is on the dynamics of China-Ethiopia relations. However to give information on the general trend of evolving China-Africa relations, chapter two of this study is devoted China Africa interactions. The remaining four chapters are on the dynamics of China-Ethiopia political and economic relations. It starts with a discussion on the moves towards the establishment of diplomatic relations and the internal and external influencing factors; the forging of diplomatic relations thereby examined the deterioration of relations in the later part of the 1970s and factors behind; renewal and transformation of interactions provided by the opportunities arose in both countries; and finally the founding of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and its contributions to the boosting of interactions between China and Ethiopia.The first fundamental contact between China and African countries thereby Ethiopia was made during the Bandung Conference of 1955. The first three decades of their interactions was characterized by reciprocal assistance reflected in terms of China's support to African countries in their struggles for independence, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, and African countries support to China's drive for recognition and representation at the United Nations Organization. Subsequently, while Premier Zhou Enlai's 1963/64 Africa tour, including Ethiopia contributed for their closer ties, the Cultural Revolution and China's activism coupled with her dispute with the Soviet Union resulted in temporary setbacks. Besides, the closer relations between the United States and Ethiopia and the Cold War despair hampered formal diplomatic relations between China and Ethiopia at least in the first two decades. Basically the interest of China at this period was dominated by its quest for African support in its accession to the United Nations representing the whole Chinese people.Meanwhile improvement of relations between China and the West, and Ethiopia's interest to win China's support in her regional and domestic problems helped the signing of diplomatic ties in 1970. Forging of diplomatic relations and the subsequent Ethiopia's Emperor China visit had laid basis for their future political and economic interactions. As an immediate outcome it had resulted in China's financial promise and Ethiopia's pledge to vote in support of China's accession to the United Nations representing the whole Chinese people which both were able to fulfill. However, continued Sino-Soviet conflict and later Ethiopia's closer relations with the Soviet Union and other factors once more had resulted in deteriorations of political and economic interactions between Beijing and Addis Ababa from 1978 to 1982.The setbacks in relations between the two countries were short lived. Normalization of interactions began by high level visits and a signing of trade protocol in 1983/84 on new basis. The launching of Reform and Opening up of China which had transformed relations from dominantly political ties to economic undertakings, improvements in Sino-Soviet relations, and decline of Soviet assistance to Ethiopia, which had forced Ethiopia to look for assistance facilitated the rapprochement. However, due to China's domestic focus and attraction towards developed nations for technology and finance, interactions with African countries including Ethiopia remained at its lowest level in the 1980s.The student movement in China in the late 1980s and Western countries threat of isolating the country once more drove China to strengthen her ties with African countries. Subsequently, clear transformation in Sino-Ethiopia interactions were observed in the post Cold War era. With the change of the government in Ethiopia in 1991 and China's strong desire to come closer with all developing countries, the two agreed to strengthen their relations on a new footing. Bilateral economic interest served as a main basis whereby they signed a new trade, economic and technical cooperation agreement which facilitated further interactions. Hand in hand with this they sympathized with each other on the questions of democracy and Human Rights, the basic political trend of our time.Furthermore the founding of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000 became a driving force for further interactions between China and Ethiopia. The forum called for an all round cooperation in political, economic and social aspects. Both countries actively participated, hosted and co-chaired the high level meetings of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Political dialogues under the Forum's framework were intensified. Economic interactions reflected in terms of trade (US $568 million in 2006), and investments reached their highest level. To consolidate these ties with strong basis China also drew its first African Policy in 2006.