Aprendizajes de la Planificación Operativa

This project has several potential benefits regarding Chinese policy towards Africa. As earlier stated, much has been made about the case studies of Chinese policy but there has been little or no examination of the knowledge about China in Africa itself. By exploring the knowledge on China in Africa and its creation, I will be able to fill one of the primary gaps of the literature on Chinese policy in Africa. It is this subject that also illustrates another potential benefit of exploring this topic. As Foucault asserted, power and the creation of knowledge are interlinked, which illustrates the importance of an examination of the creation of the knowledge on China in Africa (Reus Smit, 2009, pg. 221). In this sense, power comes from the creation of knowledge on Chinese policy towards Africa which also illustrates the power relations between China and the West. It is these power relations that also illustrates another benefit for this field of research. The conflicting discourses on Chinese engagement are partially the creation of American and Chinese norms. These norms play a crucial role in the relationship between China and the U.S. since both seek to define what one deems to be ‘normal’. If one can gain an understanding of the discourses on China in Africa, one can also acquire grounding in the wider normative power relations of China and the West.

In more recent years, the gains of China’s engagement with the African states have been made more apparent in the case of Chinese involvement in Djibouti, which hosts China’s first military base in the African continent. This comes at a time where Western powers, in this case, France, have sought to push back against Chinese gains, citing the common fear of Chinese initiatives as ‘debt traps’ that render developing nations in Beijing’s power. Despite this common criticism, the current results of this pushback have been limited, with an aide to the Djiboutian president, Omar Guelleh, describing French proposals as possessing ‘no money and no strategy for the country’s future’, a criticism that has blighted many of the established external actors in the African continent (Fouquet, 2019). In contrast to this, China has been able to win over the country as well as much of the African continent with its vision for the continent’s future. It is the nature of this vision promoted by China and how it has been able to appeal to the African states that serves as both an expression of the research issue as well as the imperative to further pursue this issue.

The competing discourses on Chinese policy towards Africa are also indicative of the spread of the American and Chinese systems beyond their original context. Similarly, to

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Bourdieu’s depiction of the habitus, which will be outlined in further detail in the next chapter, both the Chinese and American systems of norms seek to spread themselves on a global scale. This has come under the guise of universal values in the case of the American system, epitomised by the Washington Consensus, and as an alternative in the case of the Chinese system (Jing et al, 2016, pg. 25). By addressing the question of the discourses on China in Africa, one will be able to obtain a case study of the wider issue of the competing forms of globalisation.

Regarding the idea of the constructs of China in Africa as a codification of the power relations between China and the West, an examination of these constructs will help to explore the nature of power in Chinese foreign policy. Traditionally, China’s rise has often been couched in terms of hard power, focusing on the build- up and modernisation of China’s military capabilities (Christensen, 1996, pg. 20). By examining the more normative dimensions of Chinese foreign policy through these constructs, it will be possible to examine the role of soft power in Chinese foreign policy, which has become a notable influence in China’s foreign affairs. The research will be able to characterise the very nature of power in Chinese foreign policy. This notion has become of importance in recent years with the renewed rise of the perception of the China threat, epitomised by Graham Allison’s Destined for War, which warns of a ‘Thucydides Trap’ of Great Power conflict between China and the United States.

By engaging with the African states, China itself has created an alternative to the dominant American norms as well as providing a model of economic development for the developing world to aspire to. By exploring the discourse on China in Africa, one will be able to determine whether this alternative discourse will be spread as successfully as the American system or if it is merely a fig leaf to cover China’s desire for economic gain. While China’s foreign policy towards the developing world has often been perceived as primarily an economic venture in keeping with China’s post- Cold War objectives, the nature of these policies has changed alongside the Chinese discourse regarding these policies (Callahan, 2016, pg.10). This can be seen in the example of China’s cultural soft power initiatives, which were originally a means to achieve these objectives in the developing world, these have evolved into a part of China’s normative foreign policy. Rather than simply furthering China’s economic objectives, it has become a vehicle to promote the Chinese meaning of China to a wider context as well as being a means to spread Chinese norms to a greater context, which has also been furthered by the promotion of the Chinese economic model (Li and Rønning, 2013, pg. 3). It is these elements

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that have played a role in formulating China’s normative foreign policy as well as contributing to Chinese gains in Africa and the developing world.

It is the nature of Chinese foreign policy and its evolution which suggests that such policies are not merely a fig leaf for Beijing’s economic objectives. This can be seen in the case of the China Dream, which has been seen as an expression of ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ and a move away from the idea of convergence between China and the Western world (Callahan, 2012, pg. 38). Such a construct is expressive of China’s wider foreign policy vision, which suggests that these policies have moved away from simply being a pursuit of economic objectives and now has a more ambitious vision for China’s global role. It is this aspect of the images of China in Africa that has been illustrative of the course of Chinese foreign policy.

It is the idea of China as an alternative to the established paradigms that has become increasingly pronounced by the rise of the ‘China Dream’ in the Chinese foreign policy discourse. Derived from Liu Mingfu’s (2015, pg. 218) book of the same name, this concept advocates China following a future that is uniquely ‘Chinese’ rather than seeking convergence with the Western world. As with the China model, this is indicative of the wider normative challenge posed by China in that it seeks to challenge the dominant norms as well as unifying the Chinese discourse in presenting China as an alternative system for states to follow. It is this aspect that illustrates one of the wider implications raised by the research issue in the form of the wider challenge that China poses as well as the evolution of both the Chinese foreign policy discourse and China’s perception of its global role.

Through the Chinese constructs, the alternative vison that the Chinese discourse promotes is characterised by what Ho Kwon Ping (2008) terms as ‘Neo-Confucian state capitalism’ with an emphasis on ‘shared prosperity’, which echoes the Confucian principle of mutuality. While this promoted and alternative vision for development and unifies the Chinese constructs, it is also expressive of the norms that underpin the Chinese corpus, which is also indicative of the Confucian revival in China since the 1980s (Billioud and Thoraval, 2007, pg. 4). In addition, it is these norms that are expressive of the wider challenge posed by China’s normative foreign policy since it is these norms that are competing against the democratic values of the established discourse by presenting this vision as an alternative to the hegemonic paradigms.

This wider vision has also been furthered by the presentation of China as an alternative model. This has been expressed in the form of the Chinese model of development, which presents China’s development as an alternative to the established norms and paradigms (Ho,

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2008). While this has unified the Chinese constructs into a single image, it is how this vision has appealed to the African states and the developing world, with the local elites advocating the Chinese model just as much as the Chinese discourse has done (Pang, 2009, pg. 126). This development is illustrative of how the Chinese constructs have been spread to a wider context and how these constructs have been instrumental in furthering Chinese objectives in Africa and the developing world.

It is the vision of China as an alternative that has unified the Chinese foreign policy discourse, which presents China as following a largely different path to the established paradigms, as shown by the Chinese model of development. This also depicts the course of China’s future differing from that of the Western world, which has been articulated through the China Dream (Liu, 2015, pg. 457). In addition, it is the presentation of China as an alternative which is symbolic of China’s wider challenge, in this case, to the dominant assumption that democracy is the panacea for development as well as being a powerful tool in furthering Chinese interests in the developing world (Naidu, 2007, pg. 289). It is the appeal of this model that suggests how the Chinese image of China’s African policies with the Chinese model being increasingly advocated by the elites of the developing world as well as being indicative of how the Chinese vision has been able to win over many African states (Ngomba, 2011, pg. 59). It is these aspects that underline both the wider implications of the research issue as well as the imperative to examine this issue in that China is more than simply being an economic or military competitor as it has often been depicted as.

By presenting China as an alternative, the constructs present in the Chinese foreign policy discourse have been unified into a single image, which articulates China’s wider challenge. By presenting China’s model of development and its vision for global governance, these serve to challenge the dominant paradigms, which suggests that the presentation of China as an alternative is more than simply a fig leaf for Chinese economic objectives and that it has a coherent vision for the developing world. This has played a notable role in furthering China’s influence in the African states, which challenges the established image of these policies as being little more than showering corrupt African elites with Chinese money. It is for the chance to understand the wider normative power relations between China and the U.S. which serves as the main potential benefit for exploring this question.

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