Niall Farrell on how Gabon's co-hosting of the African Cup of Nations will highlight the increasing importance of Chinese economic support to the continent.
In just over a month's time, Africa's two finest teams will step out onto the pitch at the Stade d'Angondjé in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. It will be the crowning moment of the 2012 African Cup of Nations- two African teams playing for African football's greatest prize. The new 40,000-seater purpose built Stade d'Angondjé is also symbol of something else entirely African at the moment- Chinese investment.
The stadium, which will also host a number of group stage and knockout matches, was built by the Shanghai Construction Group at the behest of Beijing. In 2010 Gabon's autocratic president Ali Bongo received Chinese officials including Vice Minister Fu Ziying- who put down the foundation stone.
CAF- the African governing body- had threatened to take the competition away from Gabon because of a delay in the construction process. So Gabon invited the Chinese in and they duly completed the stadium in 20 months, instead of the planned 26.
And as if that wasn't enough, China paid for the entire stadium project and also announced a €2 million 'aid' package to fund Gabonese health and educational facilities. This 'aid' is, of course, free money, as opposed to the conditional loans often given by Western donors to African states.
The investment in the Stade d'Angondjé (or, to give it its official title in French, “Stade d'amitié sino-gabonaise”) is just one of a number of stadiums China has agreed to build in Africa- a 50,000 seater stadium (a €38 million project) in the Guinean capital Conakry is another example.
Football stadiums are among the most visible manifestations of Chinese investment in Africa, but Chinese forays into the continent go far beyond the pitch. African roads, schools, hospitals and colleges are all being funded by China.
But why? The most popular answer lies in China's attempts to displace the USA as the world's dominant superpower. The kind of 'soft power' friendship that Chinese money buys in Africa is an invaluable public relations device for the booming nation. Where America's reputation is on the slide due to financial turmoil and the ongoing war on terror, China has astutely built up its reputation as a benevolent and stable force.
It's quite easy to view their investment as part of China's plan for world domination. But is it fair? Africans seem quite happy with all this investment- a recent Afrobarometer survey (see the full paper here) shows that most Africans view Chinese investment as very positive and see China as one of the countries which help them the most.
The Sierra Leonean ambassador to Beijing summed up the feelings toward Africa well when he said “The Chinese are doing more than the G8 in making poverty history. If a G8 country had wanted to rebuild the stadium, we’d still be here holding meetings. The Chinese just come and do it.”
Niall Farrell is an Irish Football journalist and a student in the MA in Development programme in DCU. You can find his website at niallf.net. He also has a Facebook page.
Interesting stuff, I wasn't aware that China was using such headline projects as part of their investment in the continent.
ReplyDeleteDidn't China build most of the stadia for the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies too?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting what China want to get out of it; and they've clearly less scruples about who they deal with that Western government. But if they're building schools, hospitals etc. as well as stadia then it can only be a good thing for those areas.
The only real criticism that I can make is that I read that China is big on getting its mining firms a strong foothold in Africa, which these gifts would obviously help. These mining and construction companies would import their own labour from China too for whatever work they were doing so the benefits to the locality are limited.
They are, a lecturer of mine just back from east Africa was telling me recently that every second road now has signposts saying "built with the cooperation of PR China."
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to see how the continent is becoming a staging ground for Chinese foreign policy in general. They're competing more and more with US and (particularly) India in Africa.
Dan, you're right about the Cricket World Cup stadia. They built a load of stadiums in Grenada etc.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of literature out there about the downside of Chinese investment. There's some evidence that they do. in some cases, use aid for commercial gain.