If you want empirical evidence that China-Africa engagements constitute perhaps the most significant geopolitical shift this side of the ‘new’ millennium, your starting point should be the Internet. For students of Sino-Africa relations, postings ranging from podcasts and webcasts to search engines and social media and on to online news aggregators are to say least, flowing over the brim.

You need intellectual and physical fortitude to sit at your computer sifting through the chaff and the wheat churned out by think tanks, civil society and universities of all shades and stripes – from around the world. 

A quasi-web-based-survey is illustrative. If you key in the words “China Africa” in the google search bar, your finger effort will return hundreds of items. Try that with “China Us” or “China America” and the count is much smaller. Even less productive in terms of quantity of Internet content is a search for “China India” or China Japan.”

The headlines, mostly from the West, speak of utter consternation at how China has ring fenced Africa on a resource grab mission. This past week, USA Today’s offering on the topic was: ‘How China is taking over Africa’ continuing an alarmed and alarmist portrayal of China in Africa.

One hardly finds similarly abrasive headlines on China’s interests and intentions in Africa from African media – mostly the stories are a balanced blend on the positives and negatives. On the other extreme of the spectrum is Chinese media, which present only the upbeat dimension of the relations, studiously glossing over any deleterious portrayals.

The pendulum between gushing Chinese media and witheringly critical Western (especially US) media leaves African media in the middle in a manner to suggest a media version of the cold war when Africa was torn between contending West-East ideologies. This Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde dichotomy is replicated in academia – give or take some of the more balanced scholars, notably, Johns Hopkins University’s Professor Deborah Brautigam. 

Multifaceted investment in energy, mining, infrastructure and links in trade are the triggers for intense focus on the whys and wherefore of China in Africa. But wait a moment. Isn’t China also engaged with nearly all countries and regions of the world with nearly equal if not even more elevated intensity in matters economic? Indeed if you follow diplomatic developments in Beijing, the flow of high ranking officials calling on President Xi Jinping and/or Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People is quite conspicuous. Almost daily, you hear or read about top military officials, heads of state and monarchs from the US, Europe, Russia, Latin American and Oceania arriving in Beijing for ‘high level bilateral talks.’

Recently, for instance, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was in China pursuing bilateral links with reports indicating Italy is keen for Chinese investments. This week Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is in the UK and by the time you read this he might well be in Greece. In both instances, Li will be pursuing the economic dimensions of the diplomatic relations with these European nations. Not too long ago, Premier Li was in Africa and the visit was quickly framed as ‘the dragon taking over’. Yet it is unlikely Li’s junkets to UK and Greece will be interpreted in the same breath. 

Quite apart from the small matter of the US government holding an estimated $1.2 trillion in Chinese debt, consider the fact of British Prime Minister David Cameroon’s visit to China in December 2013 accompanied by a delegation of business executives looking to ink deals. Indeed what comes across as intriguing is the fact that discussions between the British and the Chinese touch on an offer by China to build a high speed railway in Britain. One could substitute that with the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway in Kenya. The Mombasa-Nairobi railway will likely be extended to Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan in nearly similar version as China is building the railway line connecting Serbia and Hungary – in the heart of Europe!

The clincher in the asymmetrical, often jaundiced comments on China-Africa relations is this: Africa is not China’s number one trading or investment partner. Africa accounted for only about 5 per cent of the total China trade with the rest of the world in 2012, according to China’s Information Office of the State Council. It is indeed well known that China’s “manufacturing floor of the world” status has been an issue of concern in the US and indeed climbed to the top 2012 presidential election campaigns. China’s trade with the Western world makes smithereens of commerce with Africa.

Reputable opinion pollsters such as Pew Research Centre have reported more positive than negative attitudes by Africans toward China year-on-year. Those who are intrigued by these salutary sentiments across the continent ought to be alive to the some underlying explanatory factors. One such factor is decidedly economic in that from 2000 to 2012, Africa’s trade volume as part of continent’s total foreign trade volume increased from about four per cent to sixteen per cent and African exports to China rose from about four per cent to over sixteen per cent in the same period. This single exemplar of the benefits to Africa precludes many other factors but dovetails into the narrative of China (and other emerging economies) as contributors to the ‘Africa Rising’ phenomenon. 

It would be naïve in the extreme to imagine that China doesn’t have its self-interest when engaging with Africa. Indeed, those who have analyzed the relations with a measure of scholarly rigour point out the absence of China-specific policies or well thought responses as an indication of only ad hoc engagements from African nations. After all, China itself has a well-thought-out Africa policy released nearly a decade ago in 2006. Indeed, a lot of room does exist for African countries to extract more benefits from China’s turn to Africa. Ultra criticism is not much of an approach in these regards.

By Bob Wekesa

The writer is a PhD candidate at Communication University of China, China and Research Associate at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.