Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the guard of honour during his state visit to South Africa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Aug. 22.Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images
In his first visit to Africa in five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been given a hero’s welcome in Pretoria, highlighting the growing advantage that China wields in the battle for influence on the continent.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made a late-night journey to Johannesburg’s international airport to greet Mr. Xi personally, along with a military honour guard and a troupe of Zulu dancers and singers. A few hours later, more red carpets were rolled out for Mr. Xi, who was given a 21-gun salute and South Africa’s highest award for foreign leaders in a ceremony in Pretoria.
“The people of South Africa salute you, President Xi Jinping,” Mr. Ramaphosa said as he draped the medal – the Order of South Africa – around the Chinese leader’s neck.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a sharp rivalry between Moscow and Western governments as they compete for African votes at the United Nations and other forums. With the West and the Kremlin battling to persuade African countries to support or oppose Western sanctions against Russia, China has quietly exploited the turbulence by deepening its own economic and political links on the continent.
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China’s strategy has been more subtle than Moscow’s approach. Russia has dominated the headlines with its military expansion in Africa, including the deploying of thousands of Russian-funded Wagner Group soldiers to bolster the national armies of several countries on the continent.
This week, a social-media video showed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin cradling a machine gun in an undisclosed African desert, boasting that his troops would make “Africa more free” and bring “justice and happiness” to Africa’s people.
But in the vast majority of African countries, Russia’s trade and investment are relatively tiny. China has become the biggest trading partner for most African countries, and Mr. Xi’s visit this week is reinforcing Beijing’s power and stature in the region.
In a sign of Chinese priorities, his visit to South Africa is only his second trip outside China in the past eight months. On Tuesday, he showed a keen understanding of South Africa’s political needs, announcing $12-million in emergency power equipment to help tackle the country’s disastrous electricity shortages. He also pledged a further $36-million in unspecified development aid and an increase in Chinese imports of South African agricultural products.
A survey in three African countries this year by the Pew Research Center found that China was viewed favourably by a plurality or majority of respondents in each country, while Russia was regarded more negatively than positively in each country. (More than 1,000 people were included in the polling in each of Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.)
In another boost for Chinese influence, Mr. Xi and Mr. Ramaphosa will co-host a China-Africa leaders’ dialogue on Thursday, to be attended by dozens of African heads of state or heads of government. Most are in town for the summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), but Mr. Xi has an advantage at this summit because Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending – largely owing to an arrest warrant against him by the International Criminal Court.
Only 17 African heads of state attended a Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg last month, compared with 43 who attended the previous such summit in 2019. The Kremlin complained that the West had put pressure on African leaders to skip the summit.
Mr. Xi, after meeting Mr. Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Tuesday, said the dialogue with African leaders on Thursday would be their first face-to-face group meeting since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We look forward to working with African leaders to chart a new blueprint for China-Africa solidarity and co-operation,” he said.
China has by far the largest economy of the five BRICS countries. Its unofficial leadership of the bloc was signalled by the choice of limousines for the leaders at the BRICS summit: All of the vehicles this time were manufactured by Chinese automakers.
Beijing is also pushing for an expansion of BRICS, with more than 20 countries having recently applied to join, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Iran and Venezuela. While some BRICS members are hesitant about expansion, Mr. Ramaphosa said he supported the idea.
More than 50 heads of state are attending the BRICS summit in Johannesburg this week – the largest number of participants since the bloc’s first formal meeting in 2006.
Mr. Xi, in a speech delivered for him at a BRICS forum by Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, denied that BRICS is creating a “bloc confrontation” with the West. “China does not have any motivation to engage in major power competition,” he said.
But he took a shot at Western countries that have criticized dictatorships in other countries. “Deliberately creating division, with the assertion of democracy versus authoritarianism and liberalism versus autocracy, can only split the world and lead to a clash of civilizations.”