Major challenges  

While the Sino-African relationship has many opportunities for both sides, a series of challenges exist that require a mature approach and balanced resolution to facilitate the full mutual benefits available.

Debt crisis: Earlier in the decade of the 1970s and 1980s African countries sought to borrow from various bilateral and multilateral donors in order to finance wealth creation and/or to jump-start the industrialization process. It so happened that African economies accumulated a lot of debt to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. It is in the mid-1980s that the reality started to dawn on African countries that they were spending much more on servicing foreign loans than for their domestic growth. An indebted country cannot industrialize since most of its GDP/GNP proceeds go to servicing foreign debt. As a result of this state of affairs, many African countries lacked the capacity to exploit the necessary natural resources for manufacturing purposes, in addition to the relevant technology, as well as liquid capital that is needed to sustain this process. This forced them to be dependent on more developed countries for capital goods, industrial inputs, technology and liquid capital. This weak capital base of African countries has acted as a major impeding factor to the industrialization process in the last decade.

Ideological divide and poor governance: While examining the debates that have permeated Africa's quest for development, studies posits that since independence, Africa's industrialization process has been state-centric, with the state being the driven force in industrialization process. Additionally, there has been bad political culture, weak political and social institutions, poor leadership and bad governance, all of which seem to have contributed to the failure of Africa's industrialization dream. It may be observed therefore that such challenges of the political kind were the most crucial in terms of spelling doom on the African quest for industrialization in the early years of independence.

Misconceptions: Concerns are expressed that China is opportunistic, extractive and exploitative. Discontent communities, in which Chinese enterprises operate, perceive the companies as not contributing enough to local economies and employment, as Chinese entrepreneurs rarely employ local workers from Africa, rather accustomed to bringing laborers from China and most management positions are filled by Chinese nationals. Importing Chinese labor to complete Chinese organized infrastructure and mining projects inhibits skill transfers and reduces indigenous employment growth. Particularly in the extractive industry, the behavior of China has been labeled a new colonialism and neo-imperialism.

China is a valuable trading partner, a source of investment financing, and an important complement to traditional development partners in Africa. China is investing massively in infrastructure, which helps alleviate supply bottlenecks and improves competitiveness of Africa. China's phenomenal growth and its capacity to move in 30 years from under-development and extreme poverty to an emerging global power and one of the largest exporter of manufactured goods, make it serve as a development model for Africa where states are seeking to escape the poverty trap.

China is also an alternative source of trade and finance from Africa's traditional trading and development partners, comprising of the United States and the EU. How then can one imagine China today without Africa, or Africa without China? It is certain that each needs one another, and so therefore, the need for a reciprocal development in the China-Africa relationship, as well as, win-win situation for the duo.

(Kabir Tahir Hamid, Ph.D, lectures in Accounting and Finance at the Department of Accounting, Bayero University, Kano-Nigeria)