China’s multifaceted relations with Africa are not new. In ancient times, China regarded Africa as being the end of the Western Zone. From the beginning of the Han Dynasty (207–220 CE), the Silk Road with its web of roads connected the East and the West. It was a corridor to trade and cultural exchange, vital to create interactions between the people of different civilizations, reaching the height of its importance during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). The robe of Cleopatra VII (69 BCE–30 CE), the Egyptian queen, is said to be made from Chinese silk. China’s celadon chinaware and coins have been found in Egypt, Kenya, and Zanzibar. Du Huan, an officer of the Tang Dynasty army, recorded his visit to Molin-guo, an African country located in desert lowland in the Sudan and Eritrea. He wrote in Western Trip (jing xing ji): “Residents are black and tough, have little rice or wheat, and grass or trees are almost unknown to them. Their horses are fed on dried fish, and people use Persian dates as food. It is a place with frequent cases of pestilence” (Smidt 2001, p. 18). During the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) dynasties, the exchange between goods and people increased and Chinese goods found their way far inland, in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Wang Dayuan , a Chinese traveler, made a trip to Zanzibar (c. 1311–1350) and met the Moroccan Ibn Battuta (1303–1377), and visited Hangzhou and Guangzhou in southern China. Zhu Siben (1273–1333) was the first to illustrate Africa on a map, as a triangle extending southward (Wu 2006, p. 23).
During the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), Chinese emperors launched a series of maritime expeditions led by Admiral Zheng He (1371–1434). In those days, China was a frontrunner in naval technology using magnetic compasses for navigation, two centuries before Europe. Zheng was the son of a Muslim from Yunnan province who began his career at the age of 12 as a court eunuch. Emperor Yongle (1403–24) selected him to unite the countries of the south and southeast under Chinese hegemony. Zheng headed seven different voyages between 1405 and 1433. They were truly huge in both scale and reach. The first expedition involved more than 60 ships, the largest 130 m long and carrying 27,000 men. His fourth expedition, from 1413 to 1415, was a round trip of 12,000 km, stopping at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. Part of the fleet then sailed down the Arabian coast as far as Aden, going on to explore the eastern shores of Africa, almost as far as Mozambique, some 80 years ahead of the Portuguese.
When the fleet returned to China in 1415, it brought envoys from more than 30 countries to pay homage to China’s rich cargo, which included a giraffe. Zheng’s final expeditions all revisited the Persian Gulf and the East African coastline, including ports in today’s Somalia and Kenya. His voyages undoubtedly advanced China’s commercial interests. His ships carried cargoes that included silks, porcelain, pearls, musk, gold, rice, millet, and beans. He returned to China with ivory, rhinoceros horn, amber, pigments, and exotic animals. Zheng died in 1434. The Ming Dynasty fell as a result of internal rebellions and the attack of the Manchus. China closed its door and it lost its status as a great sea power, but it continued to trade without official approval. Then Portuguese stepped into Africa, travelling down the coast of West Africa and to Sierra Leone in 1460. Portugal dominated world trade for nearly 200 years (Tucker 2003, pp. 365–367).
Contemporary Relations
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established on October 1, 1949. The foreign policy of New China as “Leaning to One Side” was implemented by the formation of an alliance with the Soviet Union (Zhang 2013, p. 14). Newly established China connected with African countries advocated shared historical experiences, both victims of “colonization by the capitalists and imperialists.” This paved the way to seeking the political support of African nations. Ideology was the central issue in Chinese foreign policy until the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. Mao Zedong frequently received friends and organizations from Africa, proclaiming China’s “sincere sympathy and entire support for African people’s fight against imperialism and colonialism.” China supported the liberation movements of African countries as a part of the united international front against the superpowers: the USA, and the former Soviet Union. China saw similarities with Africa, seeing itself as standing “side by side” with African countries under the banner of “South-South solidarity.”
In 1955, with representatives from 29 newly independent nations, the Afro-Asia Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia. There, the Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai, actively engaged with the leaders of African countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, and Sudan) to discuss colonialism, economic and cultural cooperation, and their role in a world that was dominated by the superpowers. A year later, China established the first diplomatic ties in the continent, with Egypt, which was also the first African recipient of Chinese aid. Zhou Enlai made his first African tour in 1963–1964 in the context of the Cold War. He visited ten African countries to gain continent’s support in competition with the “imperialists” (the USA) and the “revisionists” (the former Soviet Union).
Throughout the 1960s, China was “striking with both fists” toward both the USA and the former Soviet Union. While its relations with the latter deteriorated, China was lobbying to win the seat in the United Nations (UN), and in 1966 Chinese scientists and scholars were able to visit the USA. (Spence 1999, p. 596). By the early 1960s, China had established diplomatic relations with ten African countries, and by the end of 1970 with 44 of the 50 independent African states. It sent thousands of engineers, technicians, and doctors to Africa to build stadiums, hospitals, railroads, and other infrastructure. The TAZARA Railway cemented China–Africa relations for decades to come. This 1860 km-long railway in East Africa links the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Moshi in Zambia’s central province. It was built between 1970 and 1975 as a turnkey project , financed and supported by China. Tanzania, Zambia, and China built the railway in the spirit of pan-African socialism as the “Great Uhuru Railway (Uhuru is the Swahili word for freedom). The purpose was to eliminate the economic dependence of landlocked Zambia on Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, both ruled by white-minority governments at that time. Even today, TAZARA remains an enduring symbol of Chinese support for African independence and development, as repeated in China’s official rhetoric and historical narrative.
Taiwan and One-China Policy
The declaration of the PRC by Mao Zedong , the Chinese communist leader, ended the full-scale civil war between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT). Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT and the army retreated to the island of Taiwan, just 90 miles off the coast of mainland China. The Republic of China (ROC), as Taiwan formally calls itself, remains politically separate from the PRC. Whereas, the latter regards Taiwan as a part of China and has refused to renounce the use of force if Taiwan moves toward formal separation. China remains firm in conducting its One China policy, resisting the recognition of Taiwan. Nevertheless, China and Taiwan have developed extensive economic relations for doing business and visiting relatives. The USA has committed to a “peaceful solution” regarding Taiwan and continues to sell military technology to the region so that it can defend itself. Meanwhile China criticizes US policy toward Taiwan as being interference in China’s internal affairs. The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the USA to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC until the USA’s President Nixon visited in February 1972, ending two decades of Cold War hostility . The political support of African countries for China was crucial when the PRC was joining the UN in 1971 and thus taking over the seat of the ROC. Since then, Taiwan has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of African countries that recognize it. After Malawi switched its allegiance from Taipei to Beijing in 2007, only four countries—Swaziland , Burkina Faso , Gambia , and São Tomé and Príncipe—recognize Taiwan. Ten years later, Burkina Faso and Swasiland, are last two African allies. They say that they have no plans to break ties with Taiwan. However, it is hard to predict how long these two countries can resist China’s economic sphere of influence.
Deng Xiaoping initiated reforms in 1978 with a focus on domestic economic development, shifting from a command economy to a market economy. His pragmatic “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” opened China up to foreign investment and the global market, developing China into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Fundamentally, his dilemma was the relationship between economic progress and political freedom to secure power for the CPC. This same challenge for China remains following the Tiananmen Square tragedy in 1989. It ended China’s honeymoon relationship with Western countries for a couple of years, with China being censured and isolated by the West. Thus it turned to Africa to strengthen its old relations and initiate new projects. In the 1990s the China–Africa relationship finally shifted from ideology- to economy-driven affairs. China–Africa trade increased rapidly, from $10.5 billion in 2000 to $40 billion in 2005 and $166 billion in 2011. In 2012, China surpassed the USA and Europe to become Africa’s largest trading partner (Africa Renewal 2013).
China’s entrance into Africa has received much attention from scholars, policymakers, and the media. Its rapid engagement with economic activities in Africa has rous...