The Impact Of Chinese Foreign Policy In Africa In Comparison To The West:the Case Of Ethiopia

This thesis is a social science research for the field of international relations. The pushing factor for the writer to address such an issue was being an Ethiopian student in china who has came to understand that there is lack of data on the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and China. And additionally the visible outcomes on the Ethiopian development and other reasons were the initiative factors. The paper deals with the Chinese foreign policy impact in Africa in comparison to the west having a case study of Ethiopia in specific.It is classified as a comparative research analysis.The argument in this thesis is the point that China in Africa have been a positive influence and Ethiopia’s economic and political relation with China are positively affected by China in contrary to the west. Thesis further argues that the upcoming of the Chinese have given Ethiopia an optional choice rather than the conditional aid from the US. The objectives of the thesis is addressing the china foreign policy as well as US foreign policy in separate spheres and explain the impact they both have on Ethiopia so that it gets easier to compare both. The scope of the research is Ethiopia in terms of area and political and economical impacts in terms of aspect of issue addressed. On the gathering of data the research is done by both quantitative and qualitative as a primary and secondary source. Interview, focus group discussion, participant observation and questionnaires are the primary data collection methods. The thesis uses a tables figures and graph to analyze the data and the criteria used to recruit key informants was first respondents close to the topic and next from all around the community to have a general output.The thesis has been able to identify the positive impact of Chinese foreign policy in Ethiopian economy as well as politics. It compared this impact with the US foreign policy in Ethiopia and concluded that china has emerged as a new window outlook for Ethiopia. In terms of economy the paper explains the trade relations between Ethiopia and china, Chinese investment and infrastructure construction and finally the Aid and loan to Ethiopia. In return Ethiopia serves as a commercial launch pad for Chinese products with its84million people in demand opening a wide market opportunities and investment chances. Ethiopia politically is a strategic partner to China as it is the seat to African Union and Economic commission to Africa of the United Nations. The Chinese principle toward African countries has been based on mutual benefit and common development. a non-interference policy and one china principles are the basic element in Ethio-china relations. Ethiopia’s first and foremost foreign policy is advocating economic growth before everything. The Ethiopian government believes that government should be an active participant in economy. This fact have somewhat made it similar with the Chinese system. It is at this point that the US have been intervening in order to make all institutions on the hand of privates and to isolate the government to only guide but not interfere in the economy of EthiopiaOn the side of the US the paper examined the US policy of privatization, use of Non-Government Organizations and instrumentation of World Bank, International monetary Fund, Human right and Amnesty international. This policy has been applied in Africa for years and Ethiopia has also taken its share. The disadvantages of this policies have overweighed the advantages because still this policies don’t guide the Ethiopian economy to be independent rather they promote to always wait for Aid.For the neo liberalist west’s ideology comes first and all the assistance and relation are based on first promoting democratic system. The thesis have compared and contrasted both the Chinese and west policy in Ethiopia and reach to a conclusion that China is an important partner for Ethiopia and both countries are benefiting from their relation on a mutual understanding. Most of the roads, telecoms, dams and buildings including the new African Union headquarters are built by china. Major investments like sugar and cement factories are also being done. Around500million have been received by Ethiopia as concessional loan and china plans to increase the trade volume to3billion dollars by2015.The bilateral relation between the two have been increasing from time to time and the dimensions are also widening side by side. Thus this have been an option to look forward for Ethiopia as what it needs is economic development before anything and this have been clearly stated on the foreign policy of Ethiopia and the Chinese have come with the principle of business is business where it have been easier for Ethiopia to achieve its goal. The west doesn’t consider a mutual relation with African countries rather it is fully dependent on Aid, the risk of investing and constructing on long term loans is what the west doesn’t trust. So the relation with Ethiopia have been aid and a strategic partner but not more than that, for Chinese Ethiopia is a land of opportunity which could be used to fulfill their interest of raw material, open market, million people consumption and strategic political use to penetrate Africa. As the merits were listed there are also challenges mostly quoted by Chinese involvement in Ethiopia. The first is how the Chinese companies are overtaking local producers in the multi dimensional form of the market in products like cloth and plastic and also overtake contractors because mostly the Chinese offer a low price scale for infrastructure constructions. The second one is primary product producer Ethiopia is facing a trade deficit problem due to the overflow of Chinese products in return.After such an analysis the thesis recommends several points in order for the betterment and enhancement of Ethio-China relation. like on ways of helping the local peoples disadvantage, advocating more joint venture between china and Ethiopia by the government on terms of investment in order to raise the ability of the local producers to compete, Encouraging economic zone construction to be more on specific geographic location, And the writer considers a continental African policy to china,a better way to bargain rather than individual decisions made by each country which leads to easy manipulation as considered by some.