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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Chinese Politics in Developing Rwanda
| Panel |
35. Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Development in the African Great Lakes Region
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| Paper ID | 327 |
| Author(s) |
Soi, Isabella
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper aims to analyse Chinese involvement in Africa and most notably in Rwanda. Over the past decades Chinese politics was usually seen as of non-involvement in African affairs. In fact, it was generally regarded as limited to commercial links created through ad hoc agreements, or simply seen as an army supplier.
Noticeably, economic interests are linked with political actions to preserve them as, for example, in 1990s in Sudan. There China had a great part at the UN limiting sanctions against the African state, due to its interests in the pipeline running from South Sudan to the Red Sea. From 2000, however, relations between the Asiatic giant and Africa changed considerably.
In October 2000 the first China-Africa Cooperation Forum was organized to define political and economic practices to enhance wider relations between them. Another Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held in November 2006, to confirm Chinese interests and involvement in African economy and politics.
This different Chinese approach to Africa is also reflected in relations with Rwanda. In 1971, People's Republic of China and the Republic of Rwanda established diplomatic ties at official level. These relations had continued since then without significant crisis. On the contrary, in the last decade, they knew a substantial improvement. From 1971 to 2001 the two states signed eight agreements on technological and economic cooperation, proving the stability of their relations.
Agriculture and engineering works assistance are two of the main fields of action, even if education and medicine are also very important areas for cooperation. In recent years, tourism has furthermore become one of the grounds used to develop China-Rwanda relations, to facilitate exchanges and trade. On the other hand, China always tends to put the accent on its role of fighter against neo-colonialism to preserve Rwanda's independence and sovereignty.
Growing connections between China and Rwanda, or Africa in general, are contemporary of greater involvement in Africa of the United States of America, maybe causing a new form of antagonism that some scholars called the Third Millennium Scramble for Africa.
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