China and Europe’s Energy Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: similarities and challenges

The new scramble for African energy resources is a geo-economic competition between the world’s major powers to “conquer” the African countries’ market for “their” companies. Neocolonialism is, then, the new form of foreign influence in African countries, where notwithstanding the achievement of political independence, the economic control and the consequent indirect political power lie with overseas governments and companies. Both Western states and China use aid as a new form of foreign influence, while helping Africans to get out of poverty. Some experts consider aid as the primary cause of African underdevelopment, which increases corruption among political elites, creates a dependency culture and distorts trade. The number of people living in poverty in Africa continues to rise because of the exports of primary goods and resources such as oil and copper that create no benefit for the population but just for a political elite.

In addition, poverty and violence are directly interlinked. In a country with poor governance and rising poverty rates, the possibilities of a civil crisis increase exponentially. As it is demonstrated by the conflicts in South Sudan in 2011 and in Burundi in 1993, poverty and unemployment were among the main reasons that explain why young people joined rebel groups. In Nigeria only 1% of the population obtains the benefits from 80% of the billions of dollars of oil revenues. This unequal distribution has generated social turmoil and escalating violence. If there are neighboring States with similar social conditions, there is a high chance that the resource conflict will spill over borders, creating regional instability. “Poverty inequality and conflict are, then, interrelated.” Piracy-related attacks offshore Somalia and now also in Nigeria are mainly caused by poverty. Eradicating poverty will halve the number of people attempting to improve their wealth via oil bunkering and piracy.

In doing so, the scramble for African energy resources also has the role of creating dependency and thus provoking the amplification of the “resource course”, which will lead countries that have their economies based on resources exports to experience the Dutch Disease. This encourages the enrichment of few people, the spread of corruption and increase of poverty rates. In fact, a rising level of unemployment, bureaucracy-related corruption and extreme poverty plagues the Niger Delta. Moreover, the oil companies caused significant environmental damage that adversely affected the region’s fishing and agricultural industries, thus hindering the possibility for youths to enter the economy. The lack of appropriate policies to solve these issues provoked an armed revolt in 2000s, aiming to control the regional oil resources. The situation escalated from bunkering, to piracy and kidnappings. The attacks continue to proliferate offshore Gulf of Guinea mainly for financial purposes. In the last few years, this lucrative trend expanded to the neighborhood - Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana. This is the result of the actions undertaken by Western companies and states behavior until now.

Today, the Old Powers’ influence in Africa is decreased in comparison to the past, and the US and China have a stronger presence on the continent. However, China with its slogan and objective of a “peaceful development” tries to not represent a threat to African sovereignty, at least on the political discourse. Especially because Beijing is fully aware that China is far away from having the same military power than the US and so it is moving the conflict on a more advantageous ground: economy. China military expenditure is rising and already in 2008 was the second world’s military spender. Nevertheless, a conflict between the US and China seems unlikely – in particular taking into account the intense interconnections between them – “if it comes to a battle for the world’s diminishing resources, […] Africa could be a battleground.”

China has neither intention nor need, at least in the current situation, to provoke a war with the US, even if there is a rivalry in Asia-Pacific. There is no significant reason to provoke a massive conflict with the US, which would have terrible consequences. Instead, China will continue and boost the cooperation with the US, including maritime security, and is already doing it, in particular concerning counterpiracy. China-US relations on Africa will be characterized by some common interests on several issues but also by rivalry on others. Counter-terrorism and counter-piracy are a problem for both China and the US; thus, they are willing to cooperate to fight common threats. But, at the same time, China is acting in order to indirectly weaken the political power and influence of the US in Asia – as well as in Africa – and counts on the expectation that, in the long-term, the US would not be able to maintain their prevailing position and even maybe their presence at least in Asia. The Chinese government hopes that this behavior will eventually lead to the natural elimination of the US from the competition nearby China’s territory. Crises and wars with regional powers are more likely close to the Chinese shores than far away from them in any time soon. But, it doesn't hinder cooperation against common threats such as terrorism or piracy along the Sea Lines Of Communication (SLOC) commonly used in peacetime. We also should not forget that Chinese strategy to provide its own maritime security not only at its borders but also far away from Chinese shores, is not a hidden plan: it is official and has clearly been in process since the 1980s. [...]