Talk of a ‘new type of partnership’ was overblown, but Beijing
pledged $20 bn. and took first steps toward improving corporate and
environmental regulations. With a crucial leadership handover at
the end of the year and growing domestic economic concerns, Beijing
hosted the Fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on 19-20 July with
the usual dash of multibillion-dollar promises.
Foreign and
finance ministers from more than 50 African countries attended, but only
a handful of heads of state and government were present, notably South
Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane
Dramane Ouattara and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga. However, FOCAC
V won a different sort of feather in its cap in the presence of the
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
President Hu Jintao
outlined a set of five new pledges to Africa. The first was on finance
and includes US$20 billion in assistance to the continent, double the
amount pledged three years ago in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009. The
theme of this year’s meeting – to ‘build on past achievements and open
up new prospects for the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership’
– sounded a little tired. Yet, with little competition, China finds it
hard to outdo itself every three years at the FOCAC meetings.
The
politicians continued to proclaim that this FOCAC would bring new
initiatives and a deeper strategic partnership, but that did not happen.
Ahead of the summit, Zambia’s Foreign Minister Given Lubinda advised
African countries to form a united front instead of competing separately
for attention from Beijing. Despite such calls for unity, the 2012
Beijing Declaration showed no signs of an African united front.
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