Why the China branding Africa challenge is bad

China is a power that every other country has to reckon with. Such acceptance explains the attitudinal shift in the way China projects itself. It has moved from the Deng Xiaoping advice to keep a low profile, to one of showing off. Deng, some argue, has been overtaken by time; that there is no need of hiding Chinese power. The implied bragging is evident in the form of offensive branding in countries like Kenya.

President Xi Jinping accepts the attitudinal shift as he works to go beyond Deng at domestic and global levels by promoting and upholding everything “with Chinese characteristics”. He focuses on winning the world through his signature theme of Belt and Road Initiative infrastructural development and the doctrinal drive of shared common destiny. The United States, through Donald Trump and hatchet man John Bolton, is bolting from global institutions and inadvertently helps to promote Xi.

Generally, big powers prove they are big by behaving badly. China, probably to be admitted to the club of big powers, accepted US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s September 2005 advise to be “a responsible stakeholder”. This implied taking care of some expenses like the UN peace keeping and pressuring small countries in the Third World to “behave” in approved ways. As a big power, China behaves like an elephant that is oblivious of its size and possible damage it can cause to countries that are smaller sized. In doing so, it occasionally appears excessively pushy, more than the Euros.

Pointing fingers

Events in 2008, mainly the Euro financial crisis, mark the emergence of Chinese global pushiness. With financial instability in the West turning economic tables, Chinafound itself lecturing the Euros on economic behavior, as Euro powers lined up to cut deals and become sensitive to China’s geopolitical interests.

It, in 2009, warned the Euros not to consider China “as the EU Good Samaritans”. Then Vice-President Xi Jinping, when visiting Mexico, complained of overfed “foreigners” pointing fingers at, and blaming China for their incompetence and ineptitude. After Beijing snubbed him in April 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron changed tune. Britain was among the first to join China’snew AIIB against US wishes.

China warned the rest that it had arrived by throwing its new weight around. In 2010, State Councilor Yang Jiechi dismissively told ASEAN neighbours that “China is a big country, others are small, and that’s just a fact.” The said fact, when associated with racism, causes discomfort and erodes perceived goodwill in other countries. With the Chinese presence in Africa, as in the rest of the world, bad behavior is highly notable. The Chinese “people”, just like the Americans, reportedly complain about the government wasting money in Africa. In China, Chinese youth kill a Zambian student because he dates a Chinese girl. In Nairobi, a Chinese restaurant rejects African customers, and a China man calls Kenyans “monkeys”.

Chinese branding

Among recurrent issues in the Chinese presence is the bragging branding of China that makes Chinese dominance so obvious, that it is insulting to the host countries. Kenya is among those insulted by Chinese branding. Beside the annoyance of some “hawkers” taking over retail activities, it is the branding on major projects that is of concern. For every Chinese construction project, information put on billboards is in Chinese instead of English or Kiswahili.

Not understanding Mandarin, people wonder whether China has taken over everything. The new high-rise Parliament office block under construction on Uhuru Highway, for instance, has a big banner, all in Chinese and the MPs do not see the irony of it. Information on the big Ngong tunnel, much of the SGR information, and other major China operated projects is in Chinese. When people inquire, the official response is that it is in the contract. This type of response is an indictment on Kenyan officials, signing contracts that are inherently detrimental to perceptions of Kenyan interests.

While investment engagements are commendable, both Kenyan and Chinese officialdom should rethink the image they portray. They lose on the public relations side.

The Chinese lose when they give the impression that they do not care what others think about their behavior.

On the Kenyan side, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and the legislators, as well as CS James Macharia and Transport Ministry brass, look bad when they tolerate Chinese branding insensitivity to Kenyan sensibilities.

Prof Munene teaches history and international relations at USIU; [email protected]