Via Foreign Policy and the Christian Science Monitor, a look at China’s investments in Africa:

We all know that China is deeply invested in Africa. There is, at least on the surface, a mutually beneficial relationship to be had between China and individual nation states. China has money, the capacity to invest and build in Africa, and tends not to be too concerned with such niceties as human rights. Africa has natural resources, a craving for outside investment, and a desire to work with investors who won’t go about encroaching on national sovereignty.

So what are the countries that most benefit from Chinese investment and partnership? The Christian Science Monitor has a slideshow of the top five. The top three will come as no surprise: Angola, Nigeria, and Sudan are big countries with vast (and reasonably developed) oil resources and are happy to partner with China, which is happy to extract the oil while ignoring the political situation on the ground. The last two are something of a surprise. Mauritania has experienced two coups in the last decade, but it seems that on all political sides there is agreement on a desire for a heightened Chinese presence in a country that has both burgeoning reserves and an ambitious port project.

Coming in fifth is Botswana, which does not have oil like the other four, but it does have abundant natural resources, a fast-growing economy in a stable society, and a desire for strong investment partnerships. China is happy to reciprocate. Anyone who has spent time in Gabarone and has visited the University of Botswana or the National Stadium has seen the almost stunning volume of building that Chinese companies are carrying out.

Chinese involvement in Africa is a dual-edged sword. After all, looking beyond the West for investment and other partnerships makes complete sense, especially in a post-Cold War world where the bilateral struggle for dominance by the superpowers that led to considerable (if oftentimes deleterious) attention from the United States and Soviet Union gave way to not-so-benign neglect. But the question remains whether many African states are inviting unintended consequences much like those they faced during the Cold War when they largely represented pawns in a  geo-political game. It’s savvy to look east as long as doing so does not preclude continuing to peer westward as well. Indeed, looking both ways and not going all-in with any particular partner, however seductive, might just provide the best path for true growth, development, and political autonomy.

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1. Angola

Angola is endowed with resources such as oil, diamonds, gold, and copper, but it has only begun to rebuild after decades of crushing civil war. Oil and diamonds constituted 60 percent of the economic output in 2008 and Angola is expected to surpass Nigeria as the biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, The Economist reports.

Angola is China‘s top African supplier of crude, and China buys 43.8 percent of Angola’s total oil exports. The bilateral trade between the two countries exceeded $120 billion in 2010, according to China Briefing, a business magazine and news agency. The majority of the oil deals “are characterized by loans and credit lines in connection with infrastructure projects,” China Briefing says, including three major deals financed by China’s Export-Import Bank, totaling more than $7 billion since 2004. 

In addition to oil-related projects, China is heavily involved in Angola’s reconstruction effort, after a devastating 27-year civil war that ruined much of its infrastructure. One of the main investments is the rebuilding of the Benguela Railway, a 840-mile transcontinental railway that links the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola with rail networks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. The project is expected to cost $300 million, the Japanese Institute of Developing Economies reports, but it will provide a much-needed cheap outlet for Congolese and Zambia copper, tin, and coltan. Angolan-Chinese bilateral trade was roughly $25 billion in 2010, Asia Times reports.

 

2. Nigeria

Sino-Nigerian relations are traditionally friendly and go back to the 1970s when the West African country was an international pariah due to its successive military governments. But as China‘s economy and energy needs grow, so do Chinese investments in Nigeria. 

Nigeria holds the second largest oil reserves in Africa, accounting for over 90 percent of its exports. Even though China’s imports from Nigeria are relatively small, compared with the US, in 2006 China and Nigeria signed a $4 billion agreement in oil and infrastructure projects, an agreement that includes four drilling licenses for China. Separately, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) purchased 45 percent of an oil exploration block off the coast of Nigeria for $2.3 billion in 2006.

In 2010, China and Nigeria signed a $23 billion agreement for China to build three oil refineries and a fuel complex, Voice of America reports. Aiming to cut down Nigeria’s dependence on imports – such as clothing, pharmaceuticals, textiles, beverages – the two countries are also constructing one of Africa’s largest free trade zones on the edge of the commercial capital Lagos. Known as the Lekki Free Trade Zone, the first phase of the vast joint venture will cost $5 billion, and will stretch over 16,000 hectares when complete.

 

3. Sudan

Once an agriculturally rich country, Sudan experienced an oil boom through the early 2000s. American oil companies are not allowed to invest in Sudan because of international sanctions imposed after the Darfur conflict, so the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) plays a dominant role in oil and gas projects. Sixty percent of Sudanese oil exports, which account for 90 percent of the country’s revenue, go to China according to China Briefing.

The Chinese presence is not only seen in the oil industry but detected in other infrastructure projects such as the Merowe Dam, located about 220 miles north of the capital Khartoum. The $1.8 billion dam, situated on the Nile river and completed in 2009, has a capacity of 1,250 megawatts. The dam, which doubled Sudan’s electricity generation, is believed to have displaced about 50,000 people to arid terrains. The Merowe Dam is the largest hydropower project both in Sudan and Africa.

 

4. Mauritania

Modest oil reserves were discovered at Mauritania‘s Chinguetti oil field at the turn of the new millennium. CNPC quickly saw the potential and currently operates three exploration projects in the country. In 2006, China and Mauritania signed a $2 million cooperation deal eying the health, economic and sociocultural sectors, Business in Africa Online reports.

The close Chinese-Mauritanian relationship has survived one military coup in 2005, and another coup in 2008. During elections held in between the two coups, both of the main presidential candidates praised Mauritania’s ties with China. “The friendly ties with China can be called a model. I, if elected, will continue the path of strengthening the bilateral relations with all my efforts,” said then presidential candidate Sidi Mohammed Abdalahi.

Typical of this cordial partnership is the Nouakchott Port project, built by a Chinese state company and financed through a $295 million preferential loan provided by the Chinese government. The project extended the port at Nouakchott by more than 0.55 miles. “The loan is refundable in 20 years, including five years of grace period, with only an interest rate of 2 percent,” the China Daily reports. Bilateral trade in 2010 was estimated at $1.096 billion.

 

5. Botswana

With rich natural resources such as diamonds, nickel, coal, copper, and gold, Botswana is one of the fastest developing economies in the world, averaging a 9 percent annual growth, the World Bank reports. Botswana’s diamond reserves are the main driver, accounting for one-third of the country’s GDP and 70 percent of its export earnings, and they are expected to be sufficient for at least another 20 years, according to the US Department of State. In addition, significant uranium reserves were discovered in 2006. 

China is offering Botswana interest-free loans, low-interest loans, as well as grants, and it has a stake in 28 projects such as roads and railway renovation, health facilities and low-cost housing construction, according to the website of the Chinese Embassy in Botswana. Along these lines, in 2009, Standard Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) financed the expansion of the Morupule coal power station by providing a $825 million loan over a 20 year period. The deal aims to improve the country’s energy self-reliance and to “secure power supply by expanding the existing generating capacity,” Reuters reports.