China-Africa

Chinese Foreign Minister on Africa tour to pen trade deals, reward countries

Article published on the 2009-01-14 Latest update 2009-01-16 12:27 TU

Lake Victoria, Uganda
(Credit: Wikimedia)

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi kicked off his tour of Africa this week in an effort to enhance and improve friendly relations with Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and South Africa. The Chinese Foreign Minister has traditionally toured different African countries at the beginning of every year since 1990. The visits are usually surrounded by lucrative trade deals, although Beijing did not release any information on possible pacts.

In the past, China has used the trips to secure natural resources from African countries, such as oil, timber, and minerals. While South Africa is China's largest trade partner on the continent, the other visits are not quite so obvious.

But trade between China and Uganda is flourishing, according to Daniel Large, research director of the Africa-Asia Center at the School of Oriental and African studies (SOAS) in London.

Yang's trip to Uganda will probably include talks on a planned trade zone near Lake Victoria that the Chinese are backing to the tune of 1.1 billion euros over the next three years, said Large.

"China's relations with Rwanda have also been thickening," said Large. "Rwanda donated 113 thousand euros to China after the Sichuan earthquake last year, and China had also donated recently to Rwanda's presidential fund," he said.

In addition, China has given funds to the executive secretariat of the international conference on the Great Lakes region.

"And we might thus see some sort of security agenda linked to ongoing conflict in the eastern DRCongo that China wants to follow up on," he added.

Yang's trip to Malawi is largely considered a 'reward' trip after the southern African country switched allegiances from Taiwan to China one year ago, bolstering Beijing's 'One China' plan. Taiwan now has only four small African countries on its side.

Yang visited South Africa last year when China celebrated 10 years of relations with the African powerhouse, and is coming back for a return trip to ensure that the global credit crunch does not damage China's trade relations with South Africa, said Large.

Beijing and Pretoria will probably also discuss an important fourth meeting of the forum of China-Africa cooperation which will be held in Egypt in November.