The US-China Rivalry in Africa

 

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, Allah has given me the Tawfeeq to put before you the strategies of the countries which take themselves as superpowers and whose actions and plans are made to drift people away from the right path and to cause bloodshed to spread throughout this temporal world.

 

Today I will talk more precisely on the rivalry which exists between the USA and China, especially in Africa.

 

Africa is a critical component of China’s strategic objectives for economic growth and hegemony. China’s expansion across the continents has been dramatic, from trade to extraction to manufacturing. Chinese companies are responsible for more than 12 percent of the continent’s industry. During the last one decade, China has become the largest trading partner of Africa. China has significantly expanded African railways, investing in various projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Angola and Nigeria; it has invested in the construction and setting-up of a massive hydroelectric dam in Angola and has built Africa’s longest railway connecting Ethiopia and Djibouti; it has built the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa and the West African regional bloc, i.e. the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.

 

In 2012, while China’s trade with Africa expanded, the US-Africa trade began to decline, with the US making a sharp turn away from African oil imports to domestic production. Jobs created by Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2016 doubled from the year before and are more than triple the number created by US investment. Chinese government-backed lending has surged in recent years, driven by its Belt and Road initiative. The project has been plugging the massive demand for infrastructure development in Africa and other emerging markets. China’s approach to Africa has always been trade oriented. The continent became one of the top destinations for Chinese investment.

 

By contrast, for a long time the US has viewed Africa as a battlefield where it can confront its enemies, whether the Soviets during the Cold War, terrorists after 9/11 or now the Chinese, especially after the worldwide spread of the Covid-19 virus. Washington has never really made a concerted effort to develop its economic relations with the continent. Presently, the US finds its position increasingly challenged by two emerging powers with global ambitions, China and Russia which have joined hands together to counter any attack on them on every front, whether in war, as well as the economic, political and social front.

 

This rivalry now threatens to engulf the continent of Africa as well.  The US is now trying to counter China through various means and in various regions. Trump administration had framed an Africa strategy so as to benefit both America as well as Africa and to contain Chinese influence. Under this Africa strategy, the US wanted to re-evaluate its engagement in UN peacekeeping operations in the continent and discontinue the ineffective ones. It also said that America would no longer provide indiscriminate assistance to all African countries. Instead, it would select its partners on the basis of their voting patterns in the United Nations. The US strategies, to a large measure, are also designed to counter growing Chinese influence on the continent. As part of this policy, the Trump administration in October 2018 decided to create a US International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) with a funding of $ 60 billion. This would provide loan and risk insurance to American companies to make it easier for them to invest in Africa.

 

Now that China has gained a larger part of the African Market, the Joe Biden administration is adamant to reclaim their lost territory in Africa. The new US Africa Strategy of the new regime plans to rebuild trust on the continent (i.e. Africa) and reclaim its brand as a promoter of freedom.

 

But the escalating tensions between the US and China could end up instead threatening the security of the continent. Both countries are militarily involved in Africa. Over the past 20 years, the Chinese people’s Liberation Army has been engaged in a number of security missions across the continent, making modest auxiliary troop contributions to peacekeeping operation in Sudan, South Sudan, Liberia, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has also contributed millions of dollars of peacekeeping equipment to the Africa Union Mission in Somalia and provided significant funding to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development for its mediation in South Sudan.

 

In 2017, China established its first overseas military base in Djibouti. The Chinese military base is in close vicinity of the US base in Djibouti which had been established earlier to aid counter terror operations in Africa. This has caused further friction among the three countries: USA, China and Djibouti as it accepted China and given it permission to establish its military base near that of the US. From time to time there are incidents, or so-called accidents, whether on land or airstrikes which have happened and which caused even more frictions and animosity between the two superpowers.

 

Over the past few years, US Africa command has run different military operations in 13 African countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Tunisia. It had more than 7,000 troops deployed on the continent during the course of these ten years.

 

Thus, with increasing foreign military presence and growing diplomatic tensions, the continent is already witnessing the signs of an emerging new cold war. And just like the previous one devastated Africa, fueling wars and forcing African governments to make economic choices not in their best interests, this one will also be detrimental to African development and peace. The growing presence of the US and Chinese forces in Africa is becoming an increasingly destabilizing factor.

 

The fallout of the US-Chinese competition is particularly apparent in the strategic Red Sea region, through which passes one of the most important maritime routes. Countries in the region are not only feeling growing US and Chinese pressure to take one side or the other, but are also increasingly exposed to outside interference by various regional powers.

 

The pressure the US is exerting on African countries to move away from partnership with China could hurt Africa economies. It could force African countries into making choices that are not in their best economic interest and miss out on important development projects or funding. The diplomatic ambivalence in the positions of African countries can be sensed from the following statement of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria: “China’s relationship with the continent is not all bad. Nor can we say the US relationship with Africa is universally beneficial. The US is asking African countries to choose sides at a time when many don’t have this luxury”. 

Meanwhile, the US-China trade war is already affecting the continent.

The renewal of Politics for a Just World

The Internet and Globalization affect the way Politics are done. The democratic system and political parties have evolved relatively little in the course of modern history. Today’s societies and economics are experiencing major changes due to globalization and the disruptive power of the internet. Traditional party politics and party activities are no longer as appealing as in the past. When voters refuse to hear what their parties have to say, shouting louder is not the answer. This is the hard lesson traditional parties learned. These developments are similar across the West. Leaders of the once-dominant parties oscillate between denial and despair, while populists siphon off their traditional supporters. Voter volatility, decreasing credibility and the corrosion of party loyalties have become normal in the many party politics around the world.

 

Politics perception of political parties and institutions is rather negative. While party politics is seen by many as a necessary evil, traditional parties suffer from poor organization. They have long believed that modern politics should be organized around elections, with activities showing up periodically to hand out leaflets and cheer on the candidates. In this view, seizing and holding power is a party’s sole raison d’être. It is little wonder that citizens and even party members feel ignored between elections.

 

A major challenge for any organization today, not only political parties, is building loyalty. The decline in the membership of political parties has long been observed. Similarly, voter participation in elections, of all types, has fallen. Citizens nowadays refuse to be mere consumers of public policies. With rising levels of education, they have come with new demands for empowerment. Voters want to be treated as political actors in their own right, not as pawns in someone else’s game.

 

Today more than in the past, people prefer to align themselves with values and personal interest rather than party ideologies. People prefer low entry costs for engagement, allowing them to disengage quickly. Unfortunately for political parties, party membership is often considered a commitment with a social cost. Voters want to engage with individual projects with limited commitment, not comprehensive party programme. Consequently, individual policy issues seem to increasingly define voting behavior. People can see themselves signing up for issue based campaigns rather than permanent party membership. More and more political parties are organizing issue-based campaigns. People are invited to campaign on the issues, rather than for the party membership as it seems to be too much of a commitment for today’s citizens. Successful political parties have launched issue based campaigns which non-members can join. Membership is no longer a black-and-white choice between many shades of grey. Though it is desirable that more citizens could be integrated into the political decision making process, many of them often feel that they do not have anything political to say. The main argument for political non-participation is a classic case of moral hazard: people feel that it is more advancing their personal interests rather than advancing the collective interests of society.

 

In today’s world, the environment in which political parties find themselves operating has fundamentally changed. Globalization, through the digital communications revolution, has changed how society is structured, how individual work and how they communicate. Globalization and technological developments have connected different views, different opinions and different communities that were previously highly dispersed. Individuals who are geographically isolated from others who share their political views can now easily find like-minded people through the internet. Local communities remain important, but global communities are rapidly gaining significance in the establishment of group political identities. Many of the current fast-growing social and political movements are like bubbles that popup and difficult to sustain. Fifty years ago, it was indeed complicated and challenging to organize a demonstration. Yet, it was those very challenges that created the organizational capacity-building and motivational commitment necessary to sustain political parties. In other words, current political movements are relatively easy to organize spontaneously but they can die out just as easily.

 

The role of the basic political actor- the politician- has to be redefined. On a regional and community level the role of elected representative is often not full time; those elected execute their democratic mandate while having other jobs. There is need for professional politicians because gathering the information needed for politician’s decision- making is a full-time job.

 

There does not seem to be a quick fix or short-cut for political parties. The internet alone cannot resolve the challenges of political participation, engagement and decision-making. Political movements today need to move beyond mass participation and think about common policy proposals. The answer is not just better online decision making. The renewal of the political system cannot simply involve abandoning the traditional political structures in favor of something totally new. It has to include both the evolution of the existing political structures and innovative new ways to enhance political communication and mobilization.

 

The political world is changing, and Islam has a role to play in this evolution whereby the Muslims must establish themselves in such politics that are clean, just and set according to the rules of Islam. Insha-Allah. May Allah help the Muslims and the world to adopt such politics which are clean to facilitate [the implementation of] justice and not corruption in the world. Insha-Allah, Ameen.

----Friday Sermon of 02 December 2022~07 Jamadi’ul Awwal 1444 AH delivered by Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (aba) of Mauritius.