The Guardian
The most lavish party that China has thrown in more than 50 years got under way last night with high-pitched Peking opera, rhythmic African drumming and a gravity-defying display of acrobatics in the Great Hall of the People.
This was a display of power as much as entertainment - the unique spectacle of a nation hosting a continent. The guest list for the opening banquet included almost every head of state in Africa, representing a quarter of the votes in the UN, a sizeable chunk of the worlds natural resources and, combined with the hosts, a third of the planets people.
Shrugging aside western concerns, Beijing extended the welcome to leaders vilified in the west, such as Sudans president, Omar al-Bashir, and Zimbabwes Robert Mugabe, both of whom were given the red carpet treatment. For others, including Egypt, nuclear exchanges were on the table.
Outside, a million people were mobilised to ensure tight security, smooth transport and a convivial atmosphere. The citys streets - notorious for traffic - were miraculously clear after hundreds of thousands of drivers were ordered to keep their cars off the road. Trees were festooned with fairy lights and giant balloons bobbed on their cables in the unusually clear air.
No expense has been spared. Advertising has been stripped off billboards and replaced with giant pictures of giraffes, lions and elephants roaming the savannah. The walls around building sites have been decorated with posters of tribesmen, antelopes and the pyramids. Wanfujing, Beijings main shopping street, is a safari-land of wooden animals. Everywhere, posters proclaim: Africa, the Land of Myth and Miracles.
But it is hard cash rather than soft soap that brings 40 heads of state, eight political leaders and hundreds of business people to Beijing for the three-day China-Africa forum. Dipping into the worlds largest foreign currency reserve of $1 trillion, China is expected to display its largesse with offers of so much aid and trade that it will soon eclipse the US and Europe as the dominant foreign economy in Africa.
Deals in oil, copper, telecommunications, transport and possibly nuclear power will be discussed around the periphery of the summit, which includes a trade fair and meetings by 1,500 business executives.
Everyone agrees the potential is huge. Chinas trade with Africa has increased fivefold since 2000 to $50bn. The figure is expected to double again by 2010, by which time China will have far surpassed the US and France as the major player in the region. But this super-summit is about more than a single continent. It marks a new stage in Chinas re-emergence as a superpower.
Formerly reticent about appearing on the world stage, Beijing has gone into diplomatic overdrive this year and appears to be outmanoeuvring a US administration distracted and discredited by Iraq. In June Shanghai hosted leaders of countries representing more than half the worlds population. Last month Chinese emissaries played a crucial role in forcing North Korea back to negotiations after its nuclear test.
But it has never attempted anything on the scale of the African cooperation forum. Perhaps no nation has. Wenran Jiang, a political scientist at the University of Alberta, said the event signalled a shift in the global balance of power.
Which major power could pull something off on this scale The UK has influence in the Commonwealth, but this is far different. We are talking about an emerging world power that has the mobilising power to gather 48 out of the 53 heads of state in Africa. I dont see any parallel in history. The US never did this, nor did Russia. Symbolically this is a very, very big event.
Even Chinas gifts of hospitals and stadiums to Africa at a time when Mao Zedong was proclaiming himself champion of non-aligned developing nations pale in comparison with todays mega-projects. According to the World Bank, China is poised to become the continents biggest lender, having pledged more than $8bn this year alone.
Almost every country is getting its share. Ghana said yesterday that it was close to finalising a $600m deal for a 400-megawatt hydroelectric dam. Gabon recently signed a $3bn iron ore deal with a Chinese consortium, which will help to construct a railway and container port. Last week Zambia was promised investment of $200m for a smelter to produce 150,000 tonnes of copper. Mozambique has $2.6bn for a hydroelectric dam. Since the start of the year Egypt has seen its trade with China surge by 47.6% to reach nearly $2bn. Chinese investors and state agencies have spent billions on road-building in Kenya, a hydroelectric dam in Ghana and a mobile phone network in Ethiopia.
The biggest deals have been energy-related. Squeezed out of much of the Middle East by the United States, China now gets a third of its oil from Africa. The main suppliers have reaped the rewards. Angola has a $3bn line of credit from China. Nigeria recently sold a stake in an oil and gas field for $2.3bn - Chinas largest overseas acquisition yet. More deals are on the way. This weekends summit is expected to wrap up with a new package of aid and trade.
But China is not just buying resources, it is selling a model of development. While the west focuses on political freedoms and universal rights, Beijing says the priority should be on improving living standards and national independence. The superiority of this approach, it argues, has been proved by success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
To press home the message it has mobilised a large chunk of the citys 15 million people. Every neighbourhood committee is helping with security and decorations, and all leave for police and security guards has been cancelled. An entire market - Hongqiao, famous for clothes and childrens toys - will be shut off so that the leaders wives can shop without the usual crowds.
Dozens of five-star hotels have been commandeered, along with fleets of luxury sedans. Mandarins have spent months telling hotel managers how they should prepare for what some have described as Beijings biggest event since Mao proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Thousands of metres of red carpet have been laid, chefs have drawn up new menus with specially imported African spices and rooms have been fitted with African furnishings.
We have hosted big groups of officials before, but never like this, said Meanne Dizerent Lau of the Shangri-la hotel, which hosts the Tanzanian delegation. The government has never been so involved. Instead of the usual towel robes, she said, guests would get silk dressing gowns bearing their initials. At other hotels, receptionists have been taught basic phrases in Swahili and French, and room instructions now include compass details so that Muslim guests can pray towards Mecca.
The mixture of lavish hospitality, booming trade and political non-interference has gone down particularly well with countries that have fallen foul of western investors because of their dire human rights records. Zimbabwe is among the biggest beneficiaries, having recently secured a $1.3bn energy deal with China and funding for a Mandarin language department at a university in Harare. Robert Mugabe is now one of Africas most enthusiastic sinophiles. We have nothing to lose but our imperialist chains, he said before boarding a plane to Beijing.
African leaders are queueing up to sign new deals. Their eagerness to shake hands with President Hu Jintao has drawn comparison to the states that once came to pay tribute to the emperor.
Back in Africa there are a few dissenting voices, complaining that China is a pursuing a neo-colonialist policy, buying up cheap resources and selling higher-priced manufactured goods. But no such critical voices were to be heard among the VIP guests in Beijing.
The Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, said 90% of the goods in Addis Ababas biggest market were made in China. But he said cheap products improved living standards. There are people who say the flood of Chinese goods will undermine Africas national industry, but I dont think this is a problem, he told the Xinhua news agency. If you cant compete with the global market, you have to get it from the global market. There is no alternative.
But the growing influence of China has provoked unease among an unlikely coalition of US conservatives and global human rights groups. The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, said this week that Chinese banks ignored human rights and environmental standards when lending in Africa. Amnesty accuses Beijing of selling tanks and fighter aircraft to Sudan, where it says they have been used to commit massive violations of human rights in Darfur. China has also blocked UN sanctions against Sudan. It insists that it will not interfere in other countries domestic affairs, but also claims to be great friend of the African people and a responsible major power, said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch. But that doesnt square with staying silent while mass killings go on in Darfur.
However, Chinese academics say that the west is hypocritical, having long exploited Africa for resources and given little in return, except lectures. The big difference is that China does not attach political strings, said Liu Naiya of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. When western countries offer aid they usually insist on things like multi-party democracy. But Chinas aid is pure-hearted. This summit proves how successful its diplomatic policy has been.
Whether its allure is as strong outside Africa remains to be seen. This summit is just the start of Beijings effort to wow the world, a dress rehearsal for Chinas true coming-of-age party: the 2008 Olympics.