Beijing: According to a survey on the activities of Europe and China on the continent, China enjoys a significant advantage over the EU in terms of perceptions about decision-making and the timely completion of projects in Africa. According to a study released on Tuesday by the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), a think tank based in Kenya, China outperforms European nations in concrete projects like roads, power dams, railways, and bridges while Europe rules the roost in the abstract areas like soft power exchanges, high standards, and climate change awareness.
According to a survey on the activities of Europe and China on the continent, China enjoys a significant advantage over the EU in terms of perceptions about decision-making and the timely completion of projects in Africa. According to a study released on Tuesday by the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), a think tank based in Kenya, China outperforms European nations in concrete projects like roads, power dams, railways, and bridges while Europe rules the roost in the abstract areas like soft power exchanges, high standards, and climate change awareness.
In most areas of its engagement with Africa, including those where the EU has traditionally been thought to have commanded an unassailable lead, China is therefore on the verge of catching up to the EU, according to the study, which was commissioned by the German NGO Friedrich Naumann Foundation Global Partnership Hub.
Participants in the survey gave China a high approval rating (75.2%) compared to the European Union's approval rating of 55.8% for decision-making speed. China is renowned for its quickness and dependability and organised military precision, according to researchers. One of those researchers, Nashon Adero, pointed out that the survey revealed more respondents rated China highly on timely project completion - 81.1 % - than the EU, which came in at 69.4 %.
Adero, who teaches engineering at Taita Taveta University in Kenya, claimed that while both China and the EU are perceived as meddling in the domestic affairs of their African partners, China is perceived as doing so less frequently (50.1%) than the EU (64.4%).
Although, according to the survey results, 55.2% of policymakers believe that China uses corruption as a tool, compared to 32.5% who believe the same of the EU, Adero claimed that China is perceived to have less morals than the EU. The EU is also preferred in many areas of collaborative projects, including the calibre of the goods or services provided, good working conditions, hiring local workers and giving Africans jobs, maintaining environmental standards, and better treatment of Africans.
The study concluded, however, that "China appears to be on the verge of closing the gap and surpassing the EU on most facets of the partnership with Africa, the most evident being supporting private sector growth, intra-Africa trade and investments, economic cooperation, and long-term strategic cooperation." In response to China's Belt and Road Initiative, the EU recently unveiled a €300 billion investment package for Africa and Europe. The 27-member bloc declared in December that by 2027 it would invest the money in both public and private projects all over the world. The Global Gateway plan, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is promoting as a "true alternative," is a response to China's expanding economic and political influence in Africa.
"While the EU outperforms China on most performance indicators, China continues to gain ground in Africa," said James Shikwati, founder and chief executive of IREN. This apparent paradox is simple to explain because the African partners are obviously interested in the areas of cooperation where China excels. China is concentrating on sizable, tangible projects, while Europe and Africa are concentrating on smaller, frequently more abstract projects, according to Shikwati. According to the report, China is the best at erecting massive structures in Africa.
With the construction of rails, roads, bridges, ports, dams, and skyscrapers, Chinese state-owned enterprises significantly altered the continent's topography, according to researchers. More than 85% of respondents agreed with the statement "China supports the development of infrastructure in Africa," while only 64.2% did so for the EU. The East Africa project director for the Naumann Foundation, Stefan Schott, stated that "Africans' pragmatic view of the performance and behaviour of the two partners (EU and China) contrasts with Europe's belief in the superiority of its values." Simply put, Schott said, "A Chinese road built in record time is a value in the eyes of Africans and more tangible than abstract European projects to advance democracy, human rights, or sustainability."
By providing unsustainable loans for BRI projects, China has been accused of trapping developing nations in "debt traps," which can then be used to gain political sway or concessions with geostrategic significance for China. However, this claim has been strongly refuted.
The so-called "Chinese debt trap," according to China's foreign ministry last week, is "pure misinformation and a narrative trap created by those who do not hope to see China-Africa cooperation pick up speed," it said. China and the EU scored similarly in the survey when it came to such debt-trap economic policies. 66.4 percent of those surveyed voted in favour of China, but 58.9 percent also voted in favour of the EU.
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