Win-win outcome

China considers Africa a market with big potential, while Chinese products have met the needs of African people. African countries also receive generous support from China in technology and investment. Both sides have enjoyed tangible benefits in their cooperation, making it a win-win outcome.

Chinese business people flocked to the BRICS Summit, held in Durban, South Africa, on March 26-27, to look for opportunities to invest in Africa.

Qiu Lixia, President of the Silk Road Group, a Chinese company engaged in high technology, cloud computing and IT, said China can send a lot of products it manufactures to Africa, which has a big emerging market, and also import goods it needs from Africa. "I have made several good contacts to take my business forward," Qiu said. "Dealing with Africa, despite the challenges, has more potential than the tough struggle to enter developed countries."

Wally Jiang, President of Greenville International Solar City Westech Enterprises that works in the field of green energy production, was equally optimistic.

"The way investment and trade are taking off between China and Africa is an eye-opener for the rest of the world," Jiang said. "Historically, China and Africa have links that go back decades and the relationship is built on mutual cooperation and respect, as opposed to the West's more domineering approach. My company is involved in solar technology and as Africa has so much sunshine, it is a land of much opportunity for us," he added.

However, China's intensified engagement with Africa is sometimes denounced in the West as resource-oriented "new colonialism."

"It is true that resource trade takes a large share of Sino-African trade. But we should also recognize that 90 percent of U.S.-African trade is also resource related," Li said.

"Being rich in resources and energy is one of the advantages of Africa," he added. "The major problem is how to turn this resource advantage into a development advantage."

Li said China sees Africa as a reliable resource supplier, but China's development of natural resources in Africa is completely different from the way Western colonists did it in the past, which was indeed greedy exploitation. China has provided huge investment and much infrastructure construction for African countries while exploiting resources.

Largely due to the efforts of Chinese companies operating across the continent, Africa is experiencing an explosion in infrastructure construction that has laid a good foundation for the industrialization of African countries.

Figures released at the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held last July showed that China has helped build 100 schools, 30 hospitals and 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers across the African continent within the framework of the FOCAC, which was created in 2000.

In his latest trip to Africa, President Xi reaffirmed China's pledge to provide a $20-billion credit line to African countries from 2013 to 2015. He said China will promote cooperation in such sectors as transnational and trans-regional infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing.

Instead of merely offering financial assistance, China is dedicated to helping enhance African countries' ability to pursue development on their own by transferring advanced technologies and management skills. Xi has stressed that China will provide not only loans, but also training programs. China plans to help Africa train 30,000 professionals, and provide 18,000 government scholarships to African students from 2013 to 2015.

Challenges

It cannot be denied that with the deepening of engagement in Sino-African relations, problems will unavoidably emerge, which He described as "growing pains."

The researcher said Chinese enterprises might make mistakes when investing in Africa for a variety of reasons. However, some Western politicians and media tend to exaggerate China's flaws, and a few negative cases have been overstated as universal conduct.

Li echoed He's views. Rejecting accusations that Chinese companies do not hire local people, Li said the data he gets shows currently 80 percent of the employees of Chinese enterprises in Africa are local people, including management teams.

According to Li, local labor cost is much lower, and admitting more local people to management teams can make things much easier because they know the local customs and culture. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement in local workers' skill levels.

At the same time, Li cautioned that individual cases of misconduct by Chinese companies abroad might take a heavy toll on China's image. As overseas Chinese enterprises are not under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Government, China's Ministry of Commerce is trying to use economic means to make stricter demands of Chinese enterprises to abide by local laws and protect local environments. China also supports the right of governments of countries where Chinese enterprises reside to take legal action against illegal conduct.

(With reporting by Francisco Little in Durban, South Africa)

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