05
May
On 24 March 2015, Zambian President Edgar Lungu travelled to China on an eight-day state visit. President Lungu was invited by his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping to attend the 2015 BOAO forum for Asia, held in Sanya. He also held talks with president Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of China, during which both leaders promised to strengthen their countries’ long-standing friendship and expand cooperation. President Lungu’s visit to China is his first visit out of Africa since becoming the president of Zambia.
The timing of the visit also reveals the growing ties between China and Zambia, which has also faced much controversy with a number of high-profile cases pointing to the poor environmental, labour and occupational health and safety standards of Chinese capital in Zambia.
China established diplomatic ties with Zambia on 29 October 1964. Over the years, Chinese officials have continually stated that China’s relationship with Zambia is undertaken in the interest of both the Chinese and Zambian peoples, and it is ‘a new type of strategic partnership…featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange’. Thus, China-Africa relationship is touted as a new strategic relationship befitting the interest of the Chinese and African peoples. These principles were published in China’s Africa policy document, released by the Chinese government in January 2006. According to this document, Chinese officials reasserted that Sino-Zambian relations, as China’s relations with other African countries, is guided by the principles of sincerity, friendship and equality, mutual benefit, reciprocity and common prosperity, and mutual support and close coordination between both countries.
High-level officials from China and Zambia have brandished the four defining principles guiding China-Zambia relations: a new strategic partnership, economic win-win cooperation, friendship and sincerity, and mutual support and mutual benefit as signs of the distinctiveness of China-Zambia relations from Zambia’s relations with other countries. For instance, during his trip in China, President Lungu stated that China remains a sincere friend and good partner to Zambia.
Former Zambian president Rubiah Banda asserted in different instances that China-Zambia relations are in the interest of both Zambia and China. Even former Zambian president Michael Sata, who was elected President of Zambia in 2011 on a campaign platform in support of workers’ rights and against abuses by some Chinese companies in Zambia, later on told a consortium of Chinese business people that ‘We will be in a few days be sending president Kaunda to China to renew our acquaintance and say thank you to China for the things they have done’.
Post-independence Zambia’s reverence for sustainable development has helped fostered strong economic and diplomatic ties between China and Zambia. This is more so, since the introduction of multiparty politics in Zambia in 1991, whereby, partly due to electoral competition, elected officials are driven to articulate policies aimed at increasing foreign direct investment flows into Zambia and Zambia’s export sector for development purposes. According to the preamble of the 2006 Zambian Development Agency Act, given that most sectors in the Zambia economy are dependent on foreign capital, the Zambian government has to attract foreign direct investment promote trade between Zambia and other countries.
China’s impressive economic growth rate of more than 9% in the past three decades (it has declined to over 7% since 2013), its growing foreign direct investment and its ability to lift more than 500 million Chinese from poverty (measured by the World Bank poverty threshold of $1.25 day) has made China both a significant economic player and an economic development icon for Zambia. In 2013, China’s outbound direct investment stock in Zambia reached US$2.2 billion up from US$144 million in 2003. In the same year, direct trade between China and Zambia reached $3.1 billion, up from US$10 million in 2003. Chinese capital in Zambia has contributed to the creation of thousands of jobs in Zambia. Further, Chinese capital has been used to build valuable infrastructures in Zambia, such as roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and stadiums in Zambia.
While there is strong evidence that China’s investment in Zambia has benefited the Zambian economy and that China’s approach to fight poverty and promote development might serve as a guide to the Zambian government, in its stride to alleviate poverty and unemployment in Zambia, the practices of some Chinese companies operating in Zambia challenges the view that China’s relationship with Zambia is an economic win-win relationship, and a new strategic partnership in the interest of the Zambian peoples, at least, the majority of local Zambians. It should be noted that the suitability of China’s development approach for African countries is still debated, partly because some fundamental factors such as infrastructure, capital, large market and growing neighbouring economies which played important roles in China’s extraordinary economic growth rate, are lacking in most African economies.
In 2011, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing extensive labour abuse, union busting and ‘poverty wages’ paid by some Chinese mining companies to their Zambian employees, including subsidiaries of China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Company (CNMC) a State-owned enterprise (SOE). According to the report, there was extensive evidence suggesting that wages paid by CNMCs subsidiaries in Zambia were among the lowest wages paid by foreign mining companies operating in Zambia. Further, the report argues that some Chinese employers in Zambia refused to allow their employees to join any trade union. More distressing details were revealed of the appalling working conditions, long working hours with no rest, no paid holidays, and no retirement benefits to some Zambian employees in Nonferrous China Africa (NFCA) a subsidiary of CNMC.
Although these actions do not represent the activities of all Chinese companies in Zambia, they however indicate some of the shortcomings of Chinese capital in Zambia and calls into question the widely held belief that Chinese investment in Zambia is a “win-win” for economic cooperation. For example, in 2005, 51 Zambian copper miners were killed while working in a Chinese explosive factory in Zambia. In 2010, two Chinese mine managers, Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua, were charged with attempted murder for shooting 11 Zambian workers who were protesting over poor pay and work conditions at the Collum coal mine in the southern town of Sinazongwe.
It is evident that Chinese mining companies are not the only foreign mining companies operating in Zambia with records of appalling occupational health and safety standards, low wages, and poor environmental records. A number of western mining companies operating in Zambia have also been accused, with sufficient evidence, of undertaking mining activities with deleterious impact on the local environment, of evading taxes, and in some cases hiring high amount of employees on an informal basis with no social security benefits.
However, some of the shortcoming of CNMCs activities and the poor labour and environmental practices in other Chinese companies operating in Zambia might lead us to argue that claims that Chinese capital in Zambia is an economic win-win might be based on sweeping generalisations and are questionable. This is not to argue that all Chinese capital in Zambia is not in the interest of local Zambians, far from it, given that strong evidence to showing that Chinese capital has significantly benefited the Zambian peoples, but instead for the relevant stakeholders to rethink: to what extent is Chinese capital in Zambia an economic win-win, new and in the interest of local Zambians? And what can be done to mitigate the negativities associated with some Chinese capital, in order to establish sincere and economic win cooperation.
There is evidence that efforts are been made by Chinese and Zambian governments to ensure that Chinese companies operating in Zambia comply with local labour and environmental regulations and that some companies are changing their labour relations with local employees. In 2007, NFCA arrived at an agreement with its employees to transfer the majority of its casual workforce to permanent contract basis. Further, in 2009, CNMC released a statement indicating that it would outsource 75% of its non-vital works to local Zambian contractors. These efforts are indicative of arguments that Chinese firms in Africa, including those in Zambia, are undergoing a gradual learning process to improve their relations with local stakeholders. Notwithstanding, more work still has to take place in the interest of local Zambians.
The failure to mitigate the occurrence of environmental pollution and labour abuses in some Chinese companies in Zambia might deprive local Zambian workers of their workers’ rights and might prevent local communities from benefiting from Chinese investment. It might also undermine the ability of the Zambian government to be the ‘responsible sovereign’ actor, that is, to protect the rights of its citizens and provide for their basic welfare. Further, it might negatively impact on China’s image and interest as in Zambia.
It is therefore important that the Chinese government, Chinese companies and the Zambian government collaborate to adequately address these shortcomings. In a keynote address in Sanya, President Lungu told the audience that Chinese firms in Zambia should respect local Zambian laws, and should use local labourers and local contractors in order to ensure that China-Zambian relations is in the interest of both countries. To what extent his comments will be implemented to improve on previous positive actions from Chinese companies in Zambia is still to be seen.
China’s growing economic power over the past three decades and its keen interest to deepen ties with Zambia led to a growing presence of Chinese investment in Zambia. While Chinese capital has evidently benefit the Zambian economy and local Zambians, the practices of some Chinese companies in Zambia cast doubts on the claims that this cooperation is good for both sides. More still has to be done by the relevant stakeholders for the Chinese and Zambian people equally benefit from the relations. Only then will the relationship be worthy of being called “a win-win economic cooperation.”
Source: http://zambiareports.com/2015/04/10/what-lies-ahead-for-china-zambia-relations/