BEIJING: The true story of a mission to save thousands of Chinese civilians after war broke out in Libya served as the basis for China's box office champions during last week's National Day holiday.

In the film Home Coming, starring Zhang Yi and Wang Junkai and directed by Rao Xiaozhi, two Chinese diplomats escort citizens from a fictional rebel-controlled nation home to North Africa.

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The actual event on which the film is based marks a change in Beijing's approach to the conflict in Africa. Following the assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by rebel forces following a NATO-backed revolution in 2011, China evacuated 36,000 of its citizens. It is still the largest non-combat evacuation operation in Chinese history.

Beijing has since focused on increasing the security of its citizens and interests in Africa. Most of the Chinese citizens evacuated from Libya during the civil war were engaged in multi-billion dollar projects, most of which included railroads and petroleum contracts.

According to observers, as China's influence in Africa has grown, it has also become more involved in internal politics and conflicts across the continent, questioning whether Beijing's non-intervention policy is still in place.

China's increasing involvement in crisis management in Africa complicates the country's long-term policy of avoiding interfering in other countries' internal affairs, according to Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington. ,

According to Nantulya, most conflicts in Africa are internal, so China cannot intervene without doubting its stated commitment to the policy.

"China has scrambled to find a justification for extending its principle of 'non-intervention', which in my opinion has become too elastic," Nantulya said. "This is especially true after the start of the Belt and Road Initiative and China found itself playing some sort of role in internal crisis management."

Tim Zajontz, a research associate at Stellenbosch University in South Africa's Center for International and Comparative Politics, claimed that China's growing influence on security and the rule of law in some African countries "makes it difficult for Beijing to pretend its adherence to the principle of non-violence". Makes it. -Interfering.

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According to Zazontz, China, like other great powers, seeks to secure Chinese economic interests on the continent by influencing geopolitical developments in its favor and playing a more active role in Africa's security environment and conflict resolution.

According to Nantulya, China's participation was motivated by immediate concerns about its economy and security as conflicts directly threatened its economic resources, resource extraction operations and workforce.

Cobalt, copper and bauxite are some of the essential minerals found in some of the nations that have experienced coups, civil wars and rebellions.

Beijing has sent criminal investigators to the DRC to help stop the kidnapping, which supplies 60% of China's cobalt needs. An unstable security environment affects the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, where the Congolese military is at war with the rebel movement.

Zazontz claimed that security issues, particularly in areas with poor governance or prolonged conflict, exist in China's expanded long-term investments in various sectors. Under these circumstances, he continued, China has adopted a dual strategy to protect its economic interests.

According to Zazontz, in order to protect Chinese investments, it actively strengthens the security mechanisms of African governments, as well as encourages the expansion of Chinese private security companies there.

He claimed that given the growing geopolitical rivalry and tensions between China and the Western powers, it makes sense for Beijing to expand its security presence in key African subregions such as the Horn of Africa and West Africa.

In the Horn of Africa, where thousands have died as a result of the Tigre conflict in Ethiopia, China held a peace conference in June. Special Envoy Xu Bing also made several visits to the region to meet the leaders.

To be able to respond quickly to emergencies or evacuations, China built its first foreign military base in Djibouti, close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
According to Sefuden Adem, an Ethiopian professor of international relations at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, "China has decided not to remain a passive spectator of African conflicts."

According to Adem, China has been instrumental in managing post-conflict situations as well as mediating disputes between African states.

Adem claims that this has led to a competition between the "Euro-American" strategy for resolving disputes, which has been tried repeatedly, and the Chinese method, which has not yet been applied in the Horn of Africa.

According to Nantulya, the Chinese approach to mediation is based on the idea of "developmental peace," which holds that financial resources and investment can ease tensions by enhancing livelihood, reducing poverty, and creating gainful employment.

China's increasing involvement in African security, according to Lukas Fiala, coordinator of the China Foresight project at the London School of Economics, reflects Beijing's desire to lessen the negative effects of instability, crime, and conflict on Chinese people and businesses.

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According to him, China has attempted to integrate security cooperation under the aegis of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation under Xi Jinping and has linked capacity building in security-related sectors to more general cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing's strategy to increase international trade.

"It's important to note that non-interference has never fully existed in practise," he said, adding that China's actions in regions like the Horn of Africa and the DRC do suggest a more nuanced public interpretation of the principle of non-interference.

According to Fiala, China has long influenced domestic politics in Africa and the Global South by requiring adherence to the one-China principle as a condition of diplomatic relations.

Future developments could include "a growing emphasis on security cooperation in line with Xi Jinping's Global Security Initiative and the growing willingness to use security partnerships to consolidate existing diplomatic ties with African countries," the official predicted.

But John Calabrese, director of the Middle East-Asia Project at American University in Washington, said he didn't think Beijing's policy of "non-interference" was necessarily violated by Chinese engagement in Africa.

Why does China send out sleuths and work with regional law enforcement? In recognition of the fact that local authorities appear ill-equipped to do so, it is to protect its nationals and commercial interests, Calabrese said.

Whether these activities constitute "interference" in the internal affairs of the host nation depends on whether local partners invited and approved them or merely consented under duress or financial inducement.

Calabrese asserted that despite these activities, they are likely to continue because Beijing seems to be growing more concerned about access to raw materials as a result of difficulties on the ground and escalating rivalry with the US and its allies for vital materials.