The Central Committee of China’s influential Communist Youth League (CYL) published a rather comical (unintentionally of course) comparison between U.S. and Chinese engagement in Africa that made the case as to why China, not surprisingly, is the more optimal partner for the continent.
The arguments that the author, Yi Fan, lays out in the article are not particularly compelling as it’s plainly evident she lacks even a basic understanding of U.S. policy in Africa. The extent of her reasoning is essentially China is good, the U.S. is bad, end of story — so, substantively, there’s not much here.
But that’s not what’s important.
Narratives about the United States and Africa emanating from Communist Party entities like the CYL perform a very important role in Chinese society, by signaling to other media, social media users, and the society at large how to frame certain topics.
In this case, China is the benevolent partner for Africa while the U.S. is an “unreliable, conspiring” actor motivated by “imperialism, colonialism, and racism.” While it’s easy to dismiss this kind of rhetoric as antiquated propaganda, that would be a mistake given how pervasive this kind of thinking is today across large swathes of Chinese public opinion.
The Four Reasons Why China, Not the U.S., is the Preferred Partner for Africa:
- COVID-19: “China is full of sincerity and the United States is fake and conspiring.” Yi makes the argument that President Xi’s one billion vaccine pledge at FOCAC was greeted with “thunderous applause.” She contrasts that to the U.S. donation of just 94 million doses. This is disingenuous given that China’s vaccines distributions (mostly sales) in Africa are about the same as those from the U.S., about 113 million.
She also noted vaccine hoarding in the U.S. and the recent travel bans imposed on African countries in response to the Omicron variant as other reasons why the U.S. is bad (she conveniently did not mention that China effectively has a far more extensive travel ban in place by basically restricting all foreigners from entering the country).
- INVESTMENT: “China is pragmatic and efficient, while the U.S. is all talk.” Rather than mentioning actual Chinese investment (where China does have a good story to tell), Yi mixed together Chinese infrastructure development (not investment, financed by loans), aid programs (again, not investment) and various technical missions (also, not investment) to contrast with the U.S. Power Africa initiative that she described as an “empty check.” She also framed the U.S. focus on democracy and governance as “malicious.”
- SUMMITS: “China has been doing it for a long time while the U.S. plays only a perfunctory role.” Yi highlighted China’s previous eight FOCAC gatherings and called it “one of the most eye-catching strategic cooperation mechanisms of the 21st century” while dismissing Blinken’s plans for a U.S.-Africa summit next year. She points to the fact that the Secretary has only visited the continent once since he’s stepped into his role as proof of the U.S.’s lack of commitment.
- PATERNALISM: “China treats other countries as equals, while the U.S. acts like a “teacher.” Here Yi uses the situation in Ethiopia to argue that the U.S.’s intension to sanction the country in response to the ongoing conflict is emblematic of Washington’s paternalistic attitude towards Africa and proof of an attitude that it, not Africans, knows best. She calls the U.S. criticism of other countries on human rights and democracy grounds hypocritical, because of its treatment of Black Americans. In contrast, she claims that China is a “reliable partner” who treats Africa as a “friend and brother.”
Read the full article on the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League WeChat page.
