Sino-Zambian relations: ‘An all-weather friendship’ weathering the storm

Abstract

Sino-Zambian relations are exceptional to a remarkable degree, and do not seem to fall into the common pattern used to describe the Sino-African relationship as part of a so-called ‘new scramble for Africa’. Zambia is a country where both positive and negative developments took place earlier than elsewhere on the African continent and, in this respect, Zambia has always been one step ahead of the rest of its peers. This study is divided into three parts. The first part presents a historical overview of diplomatic relations between China and Zambia. The second part deals with the domestic politics of Zambia and the usage by Zambian elites of the Chinese presence as an argument in internal political discourses. The third part focuses on emerging patterns of Chinese investment in Zambia, and tries to unpack some of the common myths pertaining to the scope and nature of China's engagement in Africa, based on the Zambian example.

Keywords:

• Zambia
• copper
• Sino-Zambian relations
• Chinese investment
• postcolonial development

Notes

1. Copper is one of the colours of the Zambian national flag, and the national football team is often called the ‘copper bullets’ because until the 1990s players used to wear copper-coloured jerseys.

2. Kenneth Kaunda was the first among five African leaders who were honoured with the China–Africa Friendship Award in November 2009.

3. This is close to the peak of production of 750,000 in 1973, i.e. several years after the mining industry was nationalised.

4. As disclosed by government officials, the investment of the Zhougui Mining Group will reach the staggering amount of $US 3.6 billion.

5. Michael Sata is a former National Secretary of MMD. He left the Party in 2001 when Levy Patrick Mwanawasa was announced MMD presidential candidate instead of Frederic Chiluba who, supported by Sata, wanted MMD to accept a ‘third term’ for Chiluba's approach. After leaving MMD, Sata announced that he would run for presidency himself under a new party – the Patriotic Front. In 2001 the Patriotic Front won just 2% of the votes and one seat in the Parliament (Larmer and Fraser 2007, 624).

6. In 2007, during a speech to the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, Sata stated: ‘The large-scale mining and construction firms have created industrial disharmony, due to providing poor working conditions which do not comply with labour laws, environmental regulations and occupational health and safety standards. They also pay ‘slave wages’. The Chinese investments have also created only a limited number of skilled and unskilled jobs for Zambians, because most technical and managerial positions, as well as a significant number of unskilled jobs, are reserved for and held by Chinese workers, who have come along with the investment. The situation is worsened by disparities in wages paid to Chinese and Zambian workers doing the same jobs, with the Chinese being paid substantially more. Similarly, the issuance of work permits in Zambia is now marred by discrimination, because whereas the Chinese firms can take into Zambia any number of Chinese workers they wish, whether skilled or unskilled, the non-Chinese employers find it very difficult to obtain work permits even for very few skilled workers from other countries. Due to the favourable treatment given to the Chinese by the Immigration service, there are currently more than 80,000 Chinese nationals in Zambia’ (Sata 2007).