Asymmetrical rivalry between China and Japan in Africa: to what extent has Sino-Japan rivalry become a global phenomenon?

Abstract

To what extent is China–Japan rivalry a global phenomenon, and what is the nature of the rivalry they engage in outside their own region? Literature on Sino-Japanese rivalry abounds, but it pays scant attention to the relevance of the rivalry outside East Asia. This article argues that Sino-Japanese rivalry has indeed become a global phenomenon, that various forms of the rivalry are evident in Africa, and that they are mostly of an asymmetrical nature. Quantitatively, China’s contribution to Africa is far greater than that of Japan, with the exception of foreign direct investment (FDI). Qualitatively, though, Japan has a stronger sense of the rivalry than China has, revealing a psychological aspect to the asymmetry as well. Contextually, the types of activity that Chinese and Japanese actors carry out in Africa are not necessarily the same, which makes the rivalry all the more asymmetrical. The rivalry has become more apparent recently, not only because of the rise of China but also because of a change in the meaning of ‘Africa’ – from a region of ‘poverty’ and ‘hunger’ to a region of ‘economic opportunities’. That said, Africa – to a greater or lesser degree in each of its countries – still suffers from conflict and instability. As a result, the ability of Japan and China to exert power and influence throughout Africa is somewhat restricted.

Keywords:

• Sino-Japanese relations
• Africa
• rivalry
• foreign direct investment
• aid
• peacekeeping

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the workshops at the Freie Universität Berlin in November 2015 and June 2017. I would like to express my special thanks to Kai Schulze, his Freie Universität Berlin colleagues and workshop participants for their helpful comments. I am also grateful to Trissia Wijaya for her superb research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For a review of theoretical discussion of rivalry, see Kai Schulze and Verena Blechinger-Talcott's (2019) review in this special issue.

2 See Schulze and Blechinger-Talcott's discussion (2019) for a range of understandings of whether ‘mutuality’ of perception as a rival is necessary to form rivalry, or the perception as such by only one of two parties suffices to create a rivalrous relationship.

3 CEIC statics provided China’s outwards FDI from 2005 to 2016, and Japan’s from 2005 to 2013. For the period from 2014 to 2016, all the sales and purchase of financial instruments or assets in Africa are compiled from CEICs statistics on Direct Investment Assets Execution.

4 The increase in China’s FDI to Africa has been steady, except the figure in 2008, when the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) became a 20% shareholder in Standard Bank, which is the largest bank in Africa, resulting in a $5.5 billion equity investment (Mizuho Research 2014).

5 This section concerns investment, but, as will be discussed in the foreign aid section below, investment and foreign aid are both sides of the same coin for China, so here I show together the amounts pledged.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ‘kakenhi’ in the form of a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) [grant number 17K03606].

Notes on contributors

Miwa Hirono

Dr Miwa Hirono is Associate Professor at the College of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University. She held a Research Councils UK (RCUK) Research Fellowship, and Deputy Directorship at the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies, at the University of Nottingham. Her publication includes China’s Evolving Approach to Peacekeeping (London: Routledge 2012), Civilizing Missions: International Christian Agencies in China (New York: Palgrave MacMillan 2008), and Cultures of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific (Australian National University 2012). She has taught at the Australian National University, where she was awarded a PhD in International Relations, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2003–2004) and at Beijing University (2003–2004; 2009), and a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University (2018–2019). Her current research focuses on China’s peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, overseas development assistance, and conflict mediation.