ANGOLA AND CHINA A Pragmatic Partnership Working Paper Presented at a CSIS Conference, “Prospects for Improving U.S.-China-Africa Cooperation,” December 5, 2007 Indira Campos and Alex Vines Chatham House, London March 2008 About CSIS In an era of ever-changing global opportunities and challenges, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) provides strategic insights and practical policy solutions to decisionmakers. CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. Founded by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke at the height of the Cold War, CSIS was dedicated to the simple but urgent goal of finding ways for America to survive as a nation and prosper as a people. Since 1962, CSIS has grown to become one of the world’s preeminent public policy institutions. Today, CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC. 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Center for Strategic and International Studies 1800 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006 Tel: (202) 775-3119 Fax: (202) 775-3199 Web: www.csis.org ANGOLA AND CHINA A Pragmatic Partnership Indira Campos and Alex Vines1 Introduction Angola has enjoyed a period of sustained peace since April 2002 and is preparing for legislative elections in 2008—the first since 1992. From having one of the most protracted conflicts in Africa, Angola has within five years become one of the most successful economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Fuelled by record-high international oil prices and robust growth in both the oil and non-oil sector, Angola has experienced exceptionally high growth rates in recent years. In 2006, real GDP reached 18.6 percent, following the already impressive 20.6 percent in 2005. The IMF projects GDP growth to remain high at 23.4 percent in 2007 and 26.6 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, inflation has fallen from over 300 percent in 1999 to 12 percent in 2006, and surging oil revenues have led to large fiscal and external current account surpluses.2 With the war now over, rapid post-conflict reconstruction has become the government’s priority. The People’s Republic of China (China) has in particular played an important role in assisting these efforts. Chinese financial and technical assistance has kick-started over 100 projects in the areas of energy, water, health, education, telecommunications, fisheries, and public works. On the occasion of Chinese prime minister Wen Jibao’s visit to Angola in June 2006, Angolan president Eduardo dos Santos described bilateral relations as being “mutually advantageous” partnerships that were “pragmatic” and had no “political preconditions.”3 With 2008 marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between the two countries, this paper takes a fresh look at the issue of Angola and 1 Indira Campos and Alex Vines are, respectively, research assistant and head of the Africa Program at Chatham House, London. This paper was commissioned by the CSIS Africa Program as part of a project on the United States, China, and Africa and funded principally by the Rockefeller Foundation. Research was also supported by a grant from Revenue Watch Institute to Chatham House. A version of this paper will be included in a forthcoming CSIS report on U.S. and Chinese engagement in Africa. 2 International Monetary Fund (IMF), Angola: 2007 Article IV Consultation Staff Report, IMF Country Report No. 07/354 (Washington, D.C.: IMF, October 2007). 3 “PR defende cooperação constutiva com a China,” Jornal de Angola, June 21, 2006. 1 2 Angola and China: A Pragmatic Partnership China’s partnership.4 The study benefits from fieldwork carried out in Angola in September 2007 and January 2008 and includes numerous interviews with Angolan officials. Chinese embassy personnel in Luanda declined to comment on the report.5 Political and Diplomatic Relations China’s involvement in Angola dates back to the early years of the anticolonial struggle through its support for the three major liberation movements in the country: the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), União Nacional para a Indêpendencia Total de Angola (UNITA), and the Frente Nacional para Libertação de Angola (FNLA). At that time the Cultural Revolution was raging in China, and relations were defined by Cold War politics. In the early 1960s, the MPLA counted on Chinese political and military assistance,6 but following the then–Organization of Africa Unity’s recognition of FNLA and UNITA as legitimate liberation movements, that support ceased and China took a special interest in the two rival movements. In 1963, Holden Roberto of FNLA met with Foreign Minister Chen Yi in Nairobi, and China is reported to have agreed to provide most of their armaments. Likewise, in 1964, Jonas Savimbi of UNITA met with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai in China, where he received military training and became a disciple of Maoism.7 With the end of the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s, China provided military training to MPLA commanders and guerrillas. Internal splits within the MPLA but also China’s desire to balance the USSR’s strong support for the MPLA made this aid short lived.8 China’s support once again shifted to the two main rival liberation movements. Although UNITA received some sporadic aid, China’s attention was mainly targeted at the FNLA. In 1974, the FNLA received a 450-ton shipment of arms and benefited from the assistance of 112 Chinese instructors based in former Zaire.9 China’s foreign policy of aid to the three rival 4 See for instance: DFID/Centre for Chinese Studies, China’s Interest and Activity in Africa’s Construction and Infrastructure Sectors (Maiteland, South Africa: University of Stellenbosch, 2006); Centre for Chinese Studies, China’s Engagement of Africa: Preliminary Scoping of African Case Studies (Maiteland, South Africa: University of Stellenbosch, November 2007); Sabine Fandrych, “China in Angola—Sustainable Reconstruction, Calculated Election Campaign Support or Global Interest Politics?” International Politics and Society 2 (2007); Ian Taylor, China and Africa: Engagement and Compromise (London: Routledge, 2006). 5 The Chinese embassy in Angola permitted two meetings; however it refrained from commenting on any of the issues addressed in the paper. According to Xu Weizhong, director of the Department of African Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, each Chinese embassy enjoys significant autonomy in how it operates; interview, Paris, November 22, 2007. 6 In 1962–1963, China stopped being a major supporter of the MPLA because of rivalry with the Soviet Union. In 1963, Viriato de Cruz, then secretary-general of the MPLA and a key intellectual voice, split partly over the China issue and fled to Beijing, where he died in 1973. 7 Taylor, China and Africa. 8 Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002). 9 Taylor, China and Africa. Indira Campos and Alex Vines 3 groups turned out to be a major flop, when in November 1975 the Soviet-backed MPLA came to power and declared Angola independent. The Chinese initially refused to recognize Angola’s independence, and formal diplomatic relations between Beijing and Luanda were only established in 1983. The first trade agreement was signed in 1984, and a Joint Economic and Trade Commission was created in 1988, but its first meeting was held as late as December 1999, with a second meeting in May 2001.10 In the early 1990s, there were allegations that Chinese weapons had been brought into UNITA-controlled territory from Zaire. In April 1993, the government captured light and medium artillery of Chinese manufacture from UNITA in northern Angola. According to UNITA, these arms had not been procured directly from China.11 A U.S. military intelligence report from 1993 also identified that UNITA used Chinese manufactured Type 72 antipersonnel mines.12 In May 1993, the Chinese embassy in Luanda denied that it had supplied arms to UNITA.13 Relations between Angola and China improved gradually in the 1990s, and Angola became China’s second-largest trading partner in Africa (after South Africa) by the end of the decade, mostly because of defense cooperation.14 For example, in October 1997, Yang Wesheng, Chinese deputy minister of economy, trade, and cooperation, announced while visiting Angola that trade had been increasing significantly over the previous six months. In October 1998, President dos Santos also visited China, seeking to “expand bilateral ties” in meetings with Chinese premier Zhu Rongji and other officials.15 Following the end of the conflict in 2002, China’s relationship with Angola shifted quickly from a defense and security basis to an economic one.16 Relations between China and Angola reached an even higher level on March 2, 2004, when the Export-Import Bank of China (EximBank) pledged the first $2-billion oil- backed loan to Angola to fund the reconstruction of shattered infrastructure throughout the country. Since then, cooperation between the two countries has been characterized by frequent bilateral visits of important state officials (see table 1) aimed at strengthening the partnership further.