WikiLeaks: African Diplomats Wary of US-China Relations

By Eric Sande

WikiLeaks cables released on Sunday 5 December from the US Embassy in Beijing, quoted some African embassy officials expressing their fear of the ties between United States and China claiming that it will trammel Chinese funding to the region.

The leaks began streaming to the public on February 4 2010, and were classified as "confidential". This is one of the latest in the organisation's streaming release of over 250 000 leaked diplomatic cables.

Reading from the cable, “During a February 8 lunch, Kenyan ambassador to China Julius Ole Sunkuli said he and other Africans were wary of the US-China dialogue on Africa and felt Africa had nothing to gain from China cooperating with the international donor community."

"Sunkuli claimed that Africa was better off thanks to China's practical, bilateral approach to development assistance and was concerned that this would be changed by 'Western' interference. He said he saw no concrete benefit for Africa in even minimal cooperation."

Present at the meeting was South African diplomat, Dave Malcolmson, who seconded Sunkuli's reservations.

Utterance by Malcolmson was that African countries also fear losing their bargaining power. China's emergence in Africa as a counterbalance to US and European donors have been very positive for Africa by creating 'competition' and giving African countries options. He recalled that after the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, when China announced its commitments to Africa, traditional donors changed their attitude.

The two diplomats discerned that they had to prove capable to fit with China and "came calling". The European Union proposed infrastructure projects (after having defacto given up supporting these types of projects) and the World Bank began to support more agriculture projects.

"We should be careful to pick projects that would have broad support within the African community, preferably African-initiated and led, to get the development cooperation dialogue started on the right foot," reads the cable.

Sunkuli and Malcomson's give-and-takes according to the author should be seen as a warning sign, and that China might use African opposition as an excuse to halt progress on discussions or collaborations with the US.