A Comparative Study On Sino-African And France-African Relationships In The New Millennium

Stepping into the second decade of the21st century, the Sino-African relationship has reached an unprecedented peak in terms of politics, culture, economy and trade, investment, etc. Politically, China has established diplomatic relationships with most of the54African countries. In most international situations, China and Africa work together by joining their forces, which has been considered as an excellent example of the South-South cooperation; In terms of economy and investment, since the year2009, China has become the biggest trading partner of Africa and remains so till today. At the same time, Africa is also the third biggest investment destination of China. Among the54African countries, China’s investment has covered48of them. In terms of culture, the communication and interaction are increasing between the various classes of the two sides. China has also established more than20Confucius Institutes and Chinese Cultural Centers. Africa has now become an important battle field for disseminating Chinese culture.However, with the further development of the Sino-African relationship, it can be noticed that the relationship carries its twists and turns. In recent years, continuous criticism on China’s "new colonialism" by some western countries and certain NGO organizations can always be heard. The deep-seated problems and conflicts in human rights, security of society, environmental protection, safety, corporations’social responsibility, cultural identity and other problems break out continuously between China and Africa. China’s national interests and the personal rights and economical interest of the country, the companies and the people are damaged by the outbreak of these problems. Consequently, we are obliged to reflect on ourselves:what exactly is the problem in China’s strategy towards Africa? How to solve China’s own development problems and meanwhile maintain a healthy and sustainable relationship with Africa?Problems and disadvantages of the policies can been found by carrying out a comparative research. With the questions and reflections above in mind, the reference object in this paper is the Franco-African relationship. As a powerful traditional western colonial country, France has a deep and long-term influence on Africa. Using the "historical analysis"," qualitative comparison" and "statistic analysis" as research tools, a comprehensive comparison of the differences and similarities in the Sino-African relationship and Fran-African relationship is able to proceed, in terms of culture, development aid and public policies, as well as economic and commercial relationship. The intention is to draw on the experiences and summarize the lessons of the evolution of the Franco-African relationship from a historical perspective. In addition, through a trilateral evaluation system, we are able to innovate on evaluation system, attaching great importance to the ideas of the African political elites, experts and scholars so that the conclusion from the comparative study is relatively more objective and realistic.In the last part of the paper, by combining the relevant conclusions from the comparative research on the Sino-African relationship and Franco-African relationship, the present author’s personal experience in Africa and the projects on African studies that he has conducted and participated in during the past few years, a series of suggestions and ideas on how to better promote the development of Sino-African relations are put forward.The21st century is the century of China and that of Africa as well. During the period of social transition, China’s excessive and outdated production capacity, together with a large number of funds and the whole sets of technologies are precisely what Africa urgently needs, while Africa’s rich natural resources, vast land and highly potential markets are also what we are are in desperate need of. We need Africa more than ever. Admittedly, by the advancement of globalization, the room for the the African countries to choose their partners has become increasingly large. Fierce competition exist not only among the traditional Western powers such as the United States, the United Kingdoms, France and other countries in Africa, the last virgin soil on earth, the BRIC countries have also joined in. From the comparison, it is concluded that we need Africa more that Africa needs us. Therefore, establishing scientific and reasonable African strategies has become a crucial link in of China’s foreign policies. It is my greatest hope that this paper could contribute to the scientific establishment of China’s African strategies.