China, Oil, and Africa: A New Perspective.

• Author: Obi, Cyril
• Position: COMMENTARY - Essay

Introduction

In the recently concluded Forum on China-Africa Summit, held from September 3-4, 2018 in Beijing, President Xi Jinping of China announced that his country had implemented ten cooperation plans and delivered on its $60 billion pledge of financing to Africa within the framework of development cooperation since the 2015 FOCAC Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa. (1) With China-Africa trade topping $200 billion in 2017, the latest FOCAC meeting held in Beijing, and attended by 53 of Africa's 54 states, marked a "critical milestone" in China-Africa relations. The growing ties between Africa and the continent's largest trading partner, China, (2) have attracted attention both within the continent and across the world. Speaking at the FOCAC meeting, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa expressed Africa's expectation of China's continued support and partnership in helping Africa realize its great potential. (3) There is no doubt that the rise of China as an emerging power from the Global South holds great symbolism for Africa's ruling elites, who clearly hold the expectation that Africa can benefit both from the "demonstration effect" of China's feat, as well as its support, to transform the continent and renegotiate its place in an emerging global order.

However, in spite of the optimism on both sides, many observers, particularly policymakers and media based in the West, remain critical of Chinas intentions in Africa. Prominent among such criticisms is that China seeks to lure African countries with its "no strings attached" loans, grants and development financing into a debt trap, (4) while others point to growing China-Africa relations as being neo-colonial in nature. (5) Such perspectives tend to represent China as a "neo-imperial" presence, exploiting Africa's resources by imposing a set of asymmetrical economic arrangements on the continent. However, allegations that China has predatory designs for Africa have been challenged by those who argue that "fears of Chinas neo-colonialism in Africa ring false in the face of facts," (6) insisting that China is a natural ally that will help Africa develop in the spirit of South-South solidarity. (7) Fantu Cheru expertly summarizes the debates over the impact of China on Africa's development as involving three schools of thought. (8) These include those that see China's relations with Africa as a threat to the West's economic and security interests, skeptics who are wary of the effects of China's development cooperation on traditional Western aid conditionalities and effectiveness, and pragmatists who are more interested in the opportunities that the expanding engagements can open up on both sides. Rather than support any of the competing perspectives, he makes a compelling case for the primacy of "African agency," (9) arguing that it is African states and the roles of their leadership or ruling elites and institutions that will ultimately determine the outcome of the growing ties between China and Africa.

As the debate over the nature of China-Africa relations continues to rage, the place of Africa's natural resources cannot be overlooked, particularly in the face of increased global interest in the continent as a source of industrial and strategic raw materials and markets for finished goods. It is therefore important to critically examine the place of natural resources in the evolving relations, both in terms of their developmental potential for the continent and as an object of Chinese engagement with Africa. In this regard, this essay will examine the emerging trajectories in China-Africa oil relations.

As the world's largest importer and consumer of crude oil in 2017, China has become a significant player on the global energy scene. Apart from its reliance on sources from other parts of the world, its "go out policy" has also included rapid growth in global oil investments by Chinese State Oil Corporations (SOCs). Africa's status as one of the prolific frontiers of growing oil production is therefore of strategic interest both to Chinas energy security and to investments by its SOCs. The recent entry of Chinese SOCs into Africa has ignited a debate about the likely implications for the continent's development. It has similarly raised concerns as to whether the SOCs are acting at the behest of the Chinese state to exploit Africa's oil, and whether they offer African oil-producing states a more viable alternative to the Western Multinational Oil Corporations (MNOCs) that have historically dominated the continent's oil industry, with mixed results including the violation of human rights and environmental pollution in places such as Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region. This essay examines the ways in which oil impacts China-Africa relations, particularly regarding the debate about the implications of China's SOCs for Africa's development. Do China's SOCs represent a catalytic factor in the development of Africa's oil-producing states or are they out to exploit the continent and prop up corrupt regimes in exchange for unimpeded access to the continent's oil fields? This essay argues that a correct reading of the situation depends on an accurate interpretation of the agency of Africa's ruling elites for oil-producing countries (petro-elites) vis-a-vis Chinese SOCs.

In seeking to explain how oil features in China-Africa relations, and how it impacts the continent's development, it is important to interrogate existing information about the operations of Chinese SOCs in different African oil-producing countries. It is important to point out that oil relations between China and Africa are a useful point from which to begin to grapple with the sometimes complex nature of relations between the country and the continent. There is still a lot to learn about the nature of emerging relations, the factors, and personalities that shape or drive them and to what effect. This explains why it is necessary to seek to separate fact from fiction and present a nuanced and more accurate reading that goes beyond what is often peddled or accepted in some official, media or scholarly circles.

By examining the engagements of Chinese SOCs with African oil-producing countries such as Angola, Sudan, Chad, Gabon, Nigeria, etc., the article responds to some of the claims about the impact of the Chinese SOCs on development in oil-rich African states. Of particular interest are the claims that SOCs support authoritarian leaders of African petro-states who exploit and suppress their citizens, in order to enable SOCs to gain access to and exploit these states' oil fields. They also point to unfair labor practices by Chinese SOCs that also reportedly operate on the continent on the basis of sub-standard environmental practices. Such analyses tend to see Chinese SOCs through the lens of neo-colonialism, (10) and the perpetration of the so-called African oil curse...