Implications of the binomial China and Africa within the framework of Made in China 2025 for the European Union
Summary
I will begin by establishing some preliminaries, obtained from the conclusions, to understand the reason for this research on China and Africa within the framework of Made in China 2025.
- Our first preliminary will be that the People's Republic of China seeks a leading role in the international system, and to achieve this, it intends to make use of geopolitical tools with the capacity to modify, or at least, influence the current international economic order.
- One of these strategies, and this is our second preliminary, is Made in China 2025, which aims to promote such significant technological advances in China that this country ends up becoming a technological superpower for mid-century.
- This is due, and this is our third preliminary, because Digitalization has the ability to directly influence the international system. Because of that, China seeks to be the actor that sets the guidelines for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, with this, restore the international economic order.
- However, China does not have the capacity by itself to obtain all the resources that Made in China 2025 needs to meet its objectives. So it needs other countries, in this case, African ones, to achieve it.
- This continent, furthermore, and this is our last preliminary, is key for other actors such as the European Union, which has been driven to modify its foreign policy towards Africa to confront the Chinese threat.
Therefore, to reach these statements, it has been necessary analyze Made in China 2025 both in the framework of China-Africa relations, and in the Asian giant's own foreign action to really determine what this tool is, what China intends with it, and what capacity it has towards the international system. In this way, the main objectives of this research have revolved around the study of this geopolitical tool to determine the chinese practices that could end up reconfiguring the international system by directly influencing other actors, and by positioning themselves in a strategic continent such as Africa. For this reason, we have attempted to respond to 1) whether China intends to reconfigure the international system and is Made in China 2025 a tool for this; to 2) if China's presence in Africa is a strategy for the Asian giant to obtain greater status in the international system; Whether Made in China 2025 constitutes a strategy in itself to influence the foreign action of the European Union.
To answer these research questions, the following hypotheses were used. First of all, we will say that The MIC25 is shown to be one of the fundamental tools to configure a new international order by bringing together economic-financial, but also diplomatic, elements of power.. Our second hypothesis would state that The African continent, due to its medium-term projection, its strategic location and because it is a source of resources, is vital for China; and that is why this Asian giant seeks to increase its presence on the continent, also taking advantage to legitimize itself outside its borders. And the third hypothesis, which would start from the interdependence of today's international society, in which the foreign policy of a state can directly affect the roadmap regarding foreign action, in this case, of other powers such as the European Union. China would like the EU to end up positioning itself in its favor, or as its detractor; but positioning; when acting in a setting that directly influences you.
To find out if these hypotheses were indeed true, and to adequately answer the research questions that we had set for ourselves, we have approached the China's own vision of the international system, the Tianxia system. This system delimits the synovision of the current international system, but above all, it explains the why China acts the way it does, trying to influence Western liberal institutions with the creation of others such as those corresponding to the New Silk Road, which would complement them; without seeking to break with the current international system. EITHER why China seeks to expand throughout the world with strategies like MIC25.
To understand the Tianxia we must also know that Chinese foreign policy is based on 4 pillars: 1) territorial integrity; 2) recognition by the international community of one China (for the question of the Republic of China or Taiwan); 3) economic development of the country; and 4) prestige on the international scene. These pillars, in turn, are the basis of Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream, with which it aims to end absolute poverty this year 2021, and finally become a great power by 2049. All of this is intended to be achieved by fleeing from, as Huntington or more recently Graham Allison would explain, an open confrontation with the leader of the international system , USA. China intends to gain presence in this while solving its internal problems. That is, for China, and according to the Tianxia system, national power has a multiplicative character, and interior and exterior are broadly related.
In this case, China seeks tools to directly influence what happens in international society; in which now the 4th Industrial Revolution, in which it aims to be key to, thereby, being crucial in global leadership. And from here arises the statement of the importance of the African continent for China Therefore, if this country seeks to completely reduce its technological dependence on foreign countries, it will need resources to develop top-level technological innovations, which would also help China control the flow of information and disruptive technological networks that are key in the fight that is taking place in a context of geopoliticization of technology.. This would allow China to keep its interests intact, assuming a pivotal role between existing actors, while legitimizing and consolidating its foreign policy as the axis of its global leadership, completely fleeing the Thucydedes trap.
All of this would have a direct impact on the international liberal order, whose one of its main actors and champion is the European Union. This normative power could see some principles by which it is governed, such as democracy itself, broken.
For all these reasons, the elements of analysis that have been used to carry out this research have been 1) possible confrontation between liberal and Sinocentric order; and the 2) geopolitical importance of Africa. The starting point of the research was 2015, when the 2016th Chinese Five-Year Plan was ushered in, which would run from 2020 to XNUMX and would be decisive both for the formation of the current Chinese identity and for creating the foundations of the hegemonic transition.
China, Africa and the European Union
The starting point of the relations of the People's Republic of China with African countries is usually located in the 1955 Bandung Conference, in which leaders from Asian and African countries met to develop Afro-Asian cooperation in opposition to Western and Soviet colonialism. China would become the counterweight of the two superpowers of the time: the USA and the USSR; and the relations between African countries and the Asian giant would evolve and intensify to this day. At present, Sino-African relations have found their highest expression in the China-Africa Cooperation Forum or FOCAC, which had its first celebration in 2000 and has been held every 3 years since then. China is one of the main, or even the main, trading partners of countries like Kenya. This and other countries could end up joining, if they have not already done so, the global value chains with the help of China; which, by changing its consumption model in recent years, is exporting part of its industrial process to Africa.
Likewise, the Asian giant is also building infrastructure, among which those that enable Internet access stand out, in line with Made in China 2025. And the objectives of the MIC, in general terms are: 1) the rise of the Chinese manufacturing industry in the technological hierarchy of value chains, 2) the transformation of China into a technological power and 3) the restructuring of the industrial sector. The MIC25 targets strategic sectors capable of aligning public and private interests with national interests; and does so by paying special attention to technologies such as 5G or Blockchain.
All of this has caused suspicion in countries like the US, as was seen with the trade war, which directly affected the technology sector. For this reason, Xi Jinping has sought to keep the strategy with a low profile that does not modify Western practice. This could be done, if we look at the Tianxia System, to try to avoid direct confrontation with the US.
However, as we stated with the third hypothesis and advanced in the preliminaries, it seems that the EU does want to have an impact. China and the Union have strengthened economic and financial ties in recent years that have led to dependence and being extremely important strategic partners among themselves. For its part, the relevance of the EU as a global actor lies in the promotion of multilateralism and the political values on which it is based. However, technology, according to the European Political Strategy Centre, among other sources, has changed the rules of the game and threatens traditional practices. Because of that, The EU will have to boost its industry in R&D if it does not want to completely distance itself from the 4IR and endanger its very essence. For this reason, in response to China's presence in Africa, the Union presented the Joint Communication a few months ago “Towards a global strategy with Africa”, where digital transformation is second on the priority list. Along these lines, on June 30, 2020, the Union's own council concluded that this strategy constitutes an excellent basis for undertaking a new and ambitious partnership with Africa.
*This report is the Final Degree Project carried out by Mar to conclude the Degree in International Relations at Loyola University.
LL.M in International Business Law and Law from ISDE and graduated in Law and International Relations from Loyola University. CEO and business internationalization consultant at Reáculoateypunto.
