"China Net Review" Japan's investment in Africa but touched China, distorted mentality can not be exchanged for influence

Commentator of China Net Hua Zhang

Recently, the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) led by Japan was held in the North African country of Tunis from August 27 to 28. However, at such a meeting between Japan and African countries to discuss cooperation in various fields, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida repeatedly talked about China, hyped up the so-called "China debt trap", and advocated that its cooperation measures would help achieve a "resilient Africa" and "different" from China's approach.

Usually, at meetings to discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation, participants will only take mutual benefit and win-win results as the vision of cooperation, and it is rare for the Japanese side to openly declare that it will take confrontation with other countries as its goal. Japan's abnormal performance is not unrelated to the decline in its own strength and the strategic calculation of uniting with the United States to resist China.

Many years ago, Japan recognized the strategic importance of Africa in its quest for great power status. In the more than 40 years since it first proposed to join the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council in 1980, Japan has been obsessed with it despite repeated failures in applying for "regularization". The Japanese side believes that in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to obtain the support of as many member states as possible, and it will not hesitate to carry out "gold dollar diplomacy" to solicit votes for itself. There are 54 sovereign countries in Africa, which is a huge "ticket warehouse" in the United Nations and has naturally become the object of Japan's co-optation. In 2013, then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to provide a total of 3.2 trillion yen (about 148.6 billion yuan) of aid to Africa within five years to win the support of African countries, hoping to take advantage of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 2015. Kishida Fumio promised to provide $30 billion in aid for Africa's development in the next three years, probably following the old path of "gold-dollar diplomacy" and preparing for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 2025 to "rush the border" again.

In addition, Africa can be called a "treasure trove of energy resources", especially the abundant reserves of oil, natural gas, non-ferrous metals, etc., which are particularly important for Japan, which is industrially developed but resource-poor. Some Japanese energy companies have long been in Africa, and Japanese media such as the Asahi Shimbun have also used a large number of pages to publicize Africa's mineral resources, hoping that Japanese companies will increase investment. At the government level, Japan led the convening of the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development as early as 1993 to strengthen Japan-Africa cooperation in energy investment, economy and trade, and has a history of nearly 30 years.

It can be seen that the Japanese side has long given Africa an important strategic position based on its own interests, and it is not the whim of the past two years to strengthen cooperation with Africa, nor is it to achieve the so-called "resilient Africa". However, contrary to the Japanese government's perceptions and aspirations, in recent years, the scale of Japanese investment in Africa has not increased but declined. Japanese investment in Africa peaked at more than $10 billion in 2013 and then began to decline, with less than $5 billion by 2020 and only slightly higher in 2021, according to data released by the Asahi Shimbun. Even the influence of TICAD, which has been operated in Japan for many years, is declining. On the eve of this year's meeting, many people in Japan worried that the number of participants in this conference will decrease and the scale will shrink, and "ticad's brand will be lost."

The main reason why Japan has more than enough investment in Africa is that the Japanese economy continues to be sluggish. In the first half of the 1990s, Japan became the first country in Asia to achieve a per capita GDP of more than $40,000, but since then this figure has fallen into a state of slow growth or even stagnation. Japan has been surpassed by Asian countries such as Singapore and South Korea. Since 2014, Japan's GDP growth rate has remained below 2%, below 1% in many years, and even negative growth in 2019 and 2020. In the case of a long-term downturn in the domestic economy, the lack of foreign investment assistance has become inevitable.

In contrast, under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Africa cooperation is steadily advancing. By the end of 2021, 52 of the 53 African countries that have established diplomatic relations with China and the AU Commission have signed cooperation documents with China on jointly building the Belt and Road, and Africa has become one of the most important partners participating in the Belt and Road Cooperation. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, by the end of 2020, China's investment in Africa has exceeded US$43.4 billion, with investment in more than 50 African countries; China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years, and china-Africa trade volume will exceed the $250 billion mark in 2021, an increase of 35.3% year-on-year.

The differences between China and Japan in cooperation with Africa are obvious. Japan is lackluster in its actual measures, so it has no choice but to work the cannon, take a "superior student" who cooperates with Africa as a target, and rely on words to smear other countries and prove that it has done a better job. In addition, against the background of the intensification of the Sino-US game, Japan has closely followed the anti-China policy of the United States, constantly made inappropriate remarks and taken improper actions on issues involving China's core interests, not only using the hand of the United States to suppress China, but also casting a reputation and winning favor with Meina, paving the way for the realization of national "normalization". Specifically, in terms of cooperation with Africa, Japan has also calculated to win back its influence in Africa by separating China-Africa relations.

However, the strategic competitive situation between China and the United States is clearly seen by the whole world, and the latter and its subordinate countries have repeatedly slandered and slandered China's intentions, and all countries know it well. Akinvenmi Adsina, president of the African Development Bank, made it clear that China has no deliberate plans to burden any country with debt, that China is playing a very important role in supporting infrastructure development in Africa, and that Africa is not in a debt crisis. Krittan Bahana, editor-in-chief of South Africa's Diplomacy magazine, also reminded that Japan's willingness to increase investment in Africa must be translated into reality and effectively benefit the African people.

On this topic, China's attitude is much more open and inclusive. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stressed on many occasions that China welcomes all initiatives to help developing countries build infrastructure and promote common development. At the same time, China believes that different relevant initiatives should not be a relationship of mutual substitution and mutual exclusion, but should advocate inclusiveness, communication and coordination, and form a synergy. Kenji Tanaka, chairman of the Japan Asia-Pacific Forum, also believes that the number of people that Japan can send to Africa is limited, and Japanese capital has entered the bottleneck of investment in Africa, and cooperation with China is the best opportunity at this time.

I advise the Japanese side that in terms of foreign cooperation, smearing other countries cannot be exchanged for influence, but will appear to be small belly chicken intestines; It is better to strengthen cooperation with third parties, including China, in order to truly fulfill its commitments to Africa and truly help African countries build infrastructure and promote common global development. (Editor-in-Charge: Le Shui Yu Xin Yuan Kyo)