How Much Soft Power Does China Have in Africa?

Abstract

In an article from 2013, The Economist reported that a growing number of Africans thought that the Chinese created jobs, transferred skills, and spent money in local economies (More Than Minerals, 2013). Recent BBC polls on attitudes toward countries also found that China, in general, was viewed positively in Africa. China’s development assistance to Africa, which takes many forms—loans and direct economic support, health, agriculture, education, training, academic cooperation, infrastructure construction, culture, and media—is an important element of the Chinese soft engagement with Africa. China, a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, is the country that has provided the highest number of soldiers for UN operations. It also sent troops, in June 2013, to take part in the peacekeeping mission in Mali under the “protection of civilians” mandate. China’s participation in peacekeeping initiatives in South Sudan in 2014 is another case in point. However, this chapter argues that the principal source of China’s increasingly positive image in Africa is linked to China’s recent economic success. Small- and medium-scale Chinese economic presence in trade and agriculture contributes to the image of a partner who saw Africa as a continent of the future, and did so at a time when the image in the West, of Africa, was of “The Hopeless Continent,” as was the infamous cover story of an issue of The Economist in 2000.¹