By Professor Gangfu Yang
RECENTLY the ‘Looking East’ topic has been highlighted in the local media. “Namibia has taken a deliberate policy shift to court China for sustainable and prolonged business engagement” (Vol 3 No 46 19-26 May 2014, The Villager).
“Speaking in China last month, Prime Minister Dr Hage Geingob defended the growing presence of Chinese businesspeople in Namibia”(16 May Namibia Sun). He was quoted as saying, “I do not understand why people are complaining of the Chinese business people’s presence in Namibia. We hear the USA saying Chinese would take over Namibia’s economy if they are allowed to settle in the country at the current pace. That is funny, because the USA itself has more Chinese nationals than Namibia. There are Chinatowns everywhere in the world” (16 May, Namibia Sun).
Not only African countries inclusive of Namibia but also Western countries inclusive of America have adopted the ‘Looking East’ policy esp. after its financial crisis and economic shutdown. It is difficult to talk about world politics or development economics today without some reference to China entering the analysis.
China’s rapid economic and social development is the main input and trigger for policy makers to adopt the ‘Looking East’ policy among the international community.
The China Study Center has been established in Asia, Europe, America and Africa. Such centers or institutions have been rooted in many African countries, including Namibia and South Africa, where more than one center has been set up.
The motivation of establishing such centers is to study how China has achieved her social, economic and political miracles in the short decades and how the ‘China Development Mode’ theory can be applied to their own countries’ development programs.
‘China Road’ does have rich implications for the international community in their implementation of the program in their social and economic development and provides a platform of reference for the international community to borrow ideas from to achieve their visions and realize their dreams.
Chinese traditional culture, especially its cultural core values are the main contributors to China’s outstanding socio-economic achievements, which have brought about convincing improvements of Chinese livelihood, social coherence and harmony, powerful national might, advanced educational systems and increasing international influence, among others.
Many scholars agree that discussions of the causes and consequences of the 2008 and 2009 crisis conspicuously omit the issue of national culture. The 2008 and 2009 financial crisis, continuous economic slumping, the upheaval and unrest of the European and American worlds (anti-corporate greed movements) fairly expose the disadvantages and side effects of the cultural value of individualism.
This individualism, though having historically contributed to Western civilization and socio-economic advancement, has today generated negative effects in Western socio-economic development.
This is why the Western cultures are also looking East in an attempt to find a solution to their problems from the magic Eastern giant of China.
Chinese culture, the center of Asian cultures, typically stands for collectivism, similar to African communalism (ubuntu) which covers the cultural propensity for African people to be community inclusivist oriented and with the four images of humanism, supportiveness, cooperation and solidarity within a community, albeit we cannot deny the fact that Western culture has produced a great impact on African traditions.
Likewise, Chinese masses see themselves as in-group bound, obligatory agents, and as harmony seekers.
This cultural similarity is of profound importance in China-African relationships and it explains why China and Africa have been able to support and help each other for decades.
As a fellow developing country, China offered Africans a brotherly helping hand including scaling up assistance, providing concessional loans, cancelling debts and tariffs, earmarking special loans for African SMEs, building schools, hospitals and agricultural technology demonstration centers, and sending agricultural experts, just to mention a few. China, being a single country, has provided more loans to Africa than the IMF. China has written off the debt of 32 African countries and continued zero-tariff treatment for the least developed countries in Africa in their export items to China.
To take Namibia for example, China and Namibia have enjoyed an all-weather friendship and relationship. China and Namibia have helped each other with a view to enhancing the bilateral relationship for the sake of the people’s wellbeing. President Pohamba during his recent coastal visit showered praise on the Chinese for their continued investment and support to Namibia.
President Pohamba also asked Namibians to learn from Chinese and work extra hours in order to produce quality work when he observed the poor-quality work by a local contractor for the mass-housing program, which is a great initiative to benefit the Namibian people.
The Chinese community in Namibia has made great contributions to Namibia’s social and economic development in terms of employment, infrastructure construction (roads, Namport), education (scholarships, education investment), mining industry (Husab mining) agriculture (farming), tourism (increasingly more Chinese tourists), Namibians’ livelihood and trade (Chinatowns and Chinese commodities).
‘Looking East’ by African countries is a wise policy. Politically speaking, China-Africa enjoys tested relationships and China supported Africa in their independence and advocates more and louder African voices in international affairs. Economically, China and Africa enjoy potential economic complementarity.
China’s fast growth and China’s technology are value-added fortunes for Africa to inherit.
Africa’s potential labour and natural resources on the other hand are the valuable wealth for China’s efforts to improve and uplift the living standards of Chinese, and Africans as well.
From a cultural perspective, cultural similarities to a certain extent between the two cultures will make the implementation of the ‘Looking East’ policy even more efficient and effective with the desired results.
‘Looking East’ also has a strong and solid social foundation that both China and Africa have laid and built during the past years of interactions between the two cultures. ‘Looking East’ will no doubt bring about fruitful and satisfactory results for both Africans and Chinese.