Challenges remain
The cooperation between China and Africa still faces challenges that cannot be ignored. First of all, African countries have their own different national conditions. Differences in terms of national status, geographical locations, resources endowment and industrial development foundation in the continent have impact on the pace and scale of bilateral industrial capacity cooperation. Chinese enterprises should be fully prepared by doing adequate field research and studies while making investments in Africa. However, the excess capacity issues in China may remarkably vary by regions. Different industries in China should cooperate with their African counterparts based on their own advantages so as to achieve better results in industrial alignment.
The African continent as a whole is stable, but some regions are still under the threat of terrorism and political instability. Some terrorism organizations such as North Africa’s Al-qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Somalia’s Al-shabab, Nigeria’ Boko Haram and ISIS pose a threat to Africa’s peace and security. Apart from terrorist activities, some are facing internal unrest, and even civil war, such as the Mali crisis, South Sudan’s civil war and Libya’s Tribes Army issue. Even stable Ethiopia had to implement a six-month state of emergency in October 2016 due to large-scale demonstration and riots.
Global long-term economic downturn and rising trade protectionism after Donald Trump’s election in the United States have hampered the recovery of the African economy. Since 2016, Africa’s key oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Angola, and mining exporters such as South Africa and Zambia, have been facing economic downturn risks due to the low prices of oil and commodities. There is a great need for global trade liberalization no matter whether it is implementing the Belt and Road Initiative or pushing forward China-african capacity cooperation.
(The author is Senior Researcher of the Charhar Institute and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)