The goal of our research is to analyze Sino-African relationships during the post-Cold War era with a systemic behaviorism approach. This research focuses on providing explicative interpretations of the outstanding features in China¡¦s diplomatic and economic relations with Africa from an international/domestic context. Our work tries to break generally accepted connotations in Sino-African relations, in answer to questions regarding their origin, impact and perspective.
The end of the Cold War has drastically changed the world structure. With the exception of Eastern Europe, the ¡§Spring of Beijing¡¨ in 1989 has completely modified the Occidental perception of China. To aggravate the situation, China was isolated when it became the biggest communist power following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite the distancing between China and Africa in the 1980¡¦s, China attempted to reinforce comprehensive relations with Africa in hopes of political and economic gains. Due to increasing needs of support, China intensified and diversified their approach towards Africa.
China needed Africa¡¦s support because Africa was a strategic and diplomatic lever against external coercion. During the post-Cold War period, China focused on Occidental and particularly American supremacy. China wanted to shift the balance of power and to do so required a network of allies within the African continent.
China also wanted to use the strength of Africa¡¦s counter-power to construct a multi-polar world based on China¡¦s ideology. China¡¦s renewed interest towards Africa made the latter more ¡§polyvalent¡¨ for the Chinese regime. African countries took actions to help the Chinese in issues such as human rights. The human rights issue was a platform for solidarity between the two parties since they both have shared common beliefs in the anti-human right movement. Africa was also asked to hinder the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, a nation in which China considers to be a ¡§rebel province.¡¨ This was evident from 1993 when Taiwan led a campaign in Africa to re-enter the United Nations and to obtain a full political status of a state. Contrary to all expectations, rivalry regarding to the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in Africa was pacified after the South-African episode. A phenomenon of détente was seen in Africa.
From the economic aspect, Africa became China¡¦s ideal trading partner despite the geo-economic consideration. The Chinese great leader Deng Xiaoping wanted to create a China that is materially strong and wealthy. Establishing good worldwide trading relationship was required to accomplish such a task. Trading with Africa was more promising than Russia despite their geographic location. The African market offered a greater potential outlet for Chinese exports, which was particularly important since the economy of China was slowing down. Africa¡¦s natural resources were also in high demand in China. Fossil fuel was an excellent example because China had become a crude oil importing country since 1996. China¡¦s severe deficiency of energy resources also created a serious problem for the nation¡¦s autonomy. The lack of energy resources in China was a key component in the political and economical game between China and the African oil producing countries such as Sudan. This creates an original type of axis: client and ally.
Thus, Sino-African relations are determined by four key variables: American supremacy, question of Taiwan, African market and African natural resources.
Contrary to generally accepted ideas and ancient models of interaction, Sino-African relations of our times evolved in a rational way and expanded from the political fields to the economic fields due to the fact that China is heavily dependent on Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0727104-104938 |
| Date | 27 July 2004 |
| Creators | Jiang, Chung-lian |
| Contributors | Shih-hsiung Chow, Tai-lin Chang, Robert Sa, Francis Hu, Cheng-wen Tsai, none |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0727104-104938 |
| Rights | not_available, Copyright information available at source archive |
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