THE FORUM ON CHINA-AFRICA COOPERATION (FOCAC): A FRAMEWORK FOR CHINA’S RE-ENGAGEMENT WITH AFRICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

This article offers an examination of FOCAC as a framework for Sino-African engagement in the 21stCentury. China‟s growing and expanding engagement with Africa has assumed a prominent feature ofInternational Relations and discourses. The engagement is multifaceted, encapsulating mainly tradeand related economic ties. Given China‟s fast economic and industrial growth, thirst and huge demandfor new sources of energy and other resources has been generated, bringing China closer to Africawhere the availability of these resources abound. This situates China‟s renewed interest in Africa sincethe 21st Century. The deepening of economic involvement in Africa is realized through a mix of aid,special concessions, debt relief, scholarships, the provision of educational and medical trainingpersonnel and infrastructural investment projects. This represents a stark departure from the pastunder Mao Zedong, when the relationship was guided by the ideological conflict of the Cold War andespecially Beijing‟s attempts to dislodge Moscow‟s influence in the Third World. Now economicpragmatism and symbolic diplomacy appear to navigate Sino-African relations. The lynchpin ofChina‟s re-engagement of African in this century is the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC), initiated at the Ministerial Conference in Beijing in 2000. The article explores the FOCACframework, assesses the reality of its promises, and addresses the question of its problems andchallenges. The findings are that China‟s increased presence in Africa under the FOCAC frameworkhas been faced with criticisms and confrontations, but the forum has equally strengthened bilateraleconomic relationship between China and Africa, and has provided platform for Beijing to become aserious humanitarian benefactor to Africa.