When violence broke out in Kenya after the December 2007 elections, the Chinese believed that they had understood the problem.
‘Western-style democratic theory simply isn't suited to African conditions, but rather carries with it the root of disaster,’ said a comment piece in the People's Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party. ‘The elections crisis in Kenya is just one example.’
The belief that Africans are not ready for democracy is scarcely new–western diplomats and businesspeople have been muttering it in bars for decades - but it is not an analysis which appeared to resonate amongst Kenyans in early 2008. Some commentators in the country's vibrant press said that if the elections had not been stolen by the ruling party and if a corrupt elite had not creamed off so much money leaving millions in poverty, then Kenya would not be teetering on the edge of the abyss. Others argued that if the multi-tribe opposition had not reacted to losing by attacking the largely government-supporting Kikuyus, then all would have been well. In other words, the problem was defined as a lack of democracy.
In the midst of the violence, some Kenyans were nostalgic for the days of President Daniel arap Moi who balanced ethnic groups his own autocratic way, with little regard for elections, but they did not appear ready to give up on the institutions which they have since created. Unlike China, Kenya has independent newspapers and TV stations which reflect a plethora of views, independent human rights groups, non-governmental organisations, churches and mosques which operate freely, and are arguably more truly democratic than political parties. These are the institutions in which educated Kenyans seemed to put whatever their faith for the future they had left.
All of which is very baffling to the Chinese government. Reluctant to accept that there is such a thing as political strife, they described what was happening in Kenya as a ‘humanitarian crisis'. Following the Hollywood led campaign to dub the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games the ‘genocide Olympics’ because of Darfur, they have subtly shifted their position on Sudan, occasionally criticising the government in Khartoum. They are nonetheless careful to cite lack of economic progress, not power plays or murderous intent. In an interview with Channel 4 News, Liu Guijin, Beijing's Special Envoy to Sudan, said:
The Sudanese government of course is responsible for the miserable picture [in Darfur], for what's happening there. It's because even from the last government, it neglects development.
Victor Yuan, a Chinese business consultant who surveyed a hundred Chinese businesspeople and diplomats working in Africa in 2007, reported to a seminar organised by the Rockefeller Foundation in Beijing that Chinese companies are increasingly frustrated with the paucity of information they receive from their embassies, which simply reiterate central government diktats.
‘There should be more civil society and NGO participation. We don't have a strong NGO society in China, but in Africa if you don't cooperate with NGOs you cannot succeed,’ he said. ‘In China, the government plays a large role in exercising power, but in Africa, government is smaller.’
The authorities in Beijing dictate aid, trade and business policy from the centre with little regard for local conditions in Africa.
‘Ours is not a sustainable approach,’ said Mr Yuan. ‘The first thing a company should do is communicate with the local community, otherwise what they do might not be what is needed. But we tend to follow orders from China. We focus on what China can provide, not what can be willingly accepted by African people.’ He added that China's aid policies were not transparent, nor subject to independent evaluation.
In April 2007, nine Chinese oil workers were murdered and seven kidnapped by Ogadeni rebels in Ethiopia. Back home, the families pressured the government to explain the circumstances, and the Chinese company has since withdrawn from the region.
After five oil workers were kidnapped in the Niger Delta in January 2007, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) turned to a London-based consulting company, Control Risks, to provide analysis of the political situation in Nigeria, so they can judge whether it is safe for their workers to operate.
He Wenping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Chinese companies lack experience in Africa, and managers are frequently posted with no language training and no understanding of local politics.
‘A CNOOC staff member told me that at election time in Nigeria, they stayed inside the building for one month because they were so afraid of violence,’ she said.
‘Strikes and demonstrations are unfamiliar to Chinese companies,’ explained Ms He. Until recently, Chinese executives had never heard of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which the Nigerian Government has signed in an attempt to curb corruption in the oil sector; the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is also new.
Only now are Chinese companies realising that they will face some of the same problems as their western counterparts, and could benefit from their experience.
Western media reports are dismissed as biased, but there are no independent Chinese media reports - the government's version is the only one available in Chinese. In a typical propaganda initiative, in February 2008 the China Daily announced that the Chinese-African People's Friendship Association would soon nominate ten Africans Who Have Deeply Moved the Chinese People. But most Chinese would be hard pressed to name any Africans at all, let alone ten who had touched their emotions. Until Chinese companies started to invest, there was no constituency concerned about Africa beyond foreign policy experts, who are carefully vetted by the Communist Party.While Kenya's turmoil took most foreign governments and investors by surprise, the unrest in Chad had been heralded by several previous rebellions. As insurgents stormed into N'djamena, the Chadian capital, in early February 2008, you might have thought that China was in an ideal position to help, or even hold the line. China has oil exploration and drilling rights on both sides of the Chad/ Sudan border, and President Idriss Deby had blamed the government of Sudan, and their Arab militia janjaweed allies, for sponsoring the rebellion. But China was silent again.
The official news agency, Xinhua, confined itself to brief statements of fact about UN and French actions. Wang Hongyi, an expert on Francophone Africa at the Chinese Institute for International Studies, echoed standard government explanation.
‘Both Chad and Sudan are friends of China, both are our partners. China opposes rebels taking over power with armed forces. The conditions for China's involvement will be the following: the principal of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, respect of the wishes of the two countries, and UN authorization.’
As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan tried to broker a deal between rival politicians in Kenya, and France bolstered the regime in Chad, China's much-touted new influence on the continent seemed almost irrelevant.