Debunking stereotypes about Chinese

Research shows many negative assumptions about entrepreneurs from china doing business in africa

Chinese immigrants are making a great contribution to the economy of Africa, despite stereotypes and assumptions otherwise, says Giles Mohan, professor of international development at The Open University, a distance learning and research university based in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom.

Many common assumptions about Chinese migrants are not true, such as that they usually bring in cheap goods of inferior quality, that they bring family members with them, and that Chinese employers are not good employers, Mohan says.

On the contrary, Chinese immigrants are varied in their behavior and intentions in Africa. Many of them are responsible employers, respect local laws and regulations, and run very good businesses, he says.

Mohan, author of the 2014 book Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development: New Imperialists or Agents of Change?, has decided to research the impact of Chinese living in Africa after noticing their growing presence in West African countries like Ghana and Nigeria.

Sizable, longstanding Chinese communities in South Africa and Mauritius date back to the colonial period, and more recent immigrants consisted of 1980s arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Although exact statistics are hard to obtain, recent studies show that Chinese living in Africa are estimated at around a million, with growth mostly found in significant oil rich countries, notably Nigeria, Angola and Sudan.

Mohan says the research has been challenging but the results are eye-opening, allowing him to look at Chinese migrants in a different light.

One assumption Mohan examined is that Chinese traders are bringing goods of inferior quality to Africa, that they use business networks in China to keep prices low, and also that they bribe African officials to get products through ports quickly.

"There was quite a lot of negativity on the part of African traders at that point in terms of making these assumptions of what the Chinese are doing," Mohan says.

But, in fact, much of the cheap products from China have been imported into Africa by African traders, who have enjoyed large profits from the trade, so they were not happy when Chinese traders came onto the scene with properly priced items, Mohan discovered.

A lot of this cheap Chinese import trade began when Africans who came to southern China to work in the production sector realized there was a market for importing Chinese items, such as shoes and electronic products, to Africa.

"So in some sense it was the African traders who were the pioneers of that. The fact that many Chinese traders came in and took over the trade is an issue. So it wasn't just the Chinese driving all of this," he says.

Mohan found in his research that even Africans who felt they have been negatively affected by the growing availability of cheap products have admitted that the Chinese presence is not the sole cause of their problems.

Another common assumption held that Chinese employers do not treat or pay their workers well, and they only employ Chinese. This is again not true, as most Chinese companies have to agree with local labor unions on a justifiable wage, and also Chinese companies do employ many Africans, Mohan says.

"The Chinese come over, set up their businesses, work very long hours. They don't live extravagant, flashy lifestyles. Some live in their shops. They employ quite a lot of Africans," he says.

Mohan has also found that many Chinese companies employ highly skilled workers. One Chinese engineering firm he came across has employed African engineers who received training in China and then returned to Africa to work with the company for 20-30 years.

Mohan also has found some joint ventures between Chinese and African businesses, and in some cases Africans have invested in companies that Chinese entrepreneurs established.

One trade union in northern Nigeria told Mohan, "Hard bread is better than none," meaning that a Chinese company may pay its employees slightly lower wages to make its business profitable, but this also gives the employee a stable job.

Mohan says fundamental to many of these assumptions is the belief that much of what Chinese migrants and Chinese companies do in Africa fits into a top-down approach driven by the Chinese government.

But in fact, while the expansion of China's state-owned enterprises in Africa very well may be led by the Chinese government, individual Chinese migrants are not. They have come to make money, to find opportunities, and not all have been successful in their endeavors, Mohan says.

"Many Chinese migrants coming to Africa have no agenda. Rather than any single logic driving them to Africa, there are so many reasons. But the important thing is that they wanted to make money. Generally they did quite well, but we have found a lot of cases where the firms have gone bust," he says.

Another cause behind the misconceptions is racism and bias against the Chinese. "The backdrop to the bigger kind of set of assumptions is the changing balance of power in the global economy," Mohan says.

As China's economy rapidly grows, China is venturing out for resources in regions not just limited to Africa, but also in Canada and Australia. This trend of overseas investment has triggered negative responses around the world, he says.

"When you look at the African oil industry, there is this fear that the Chinese are going to come in and scoop up all the oil. This is a very aggressive, anti-Chinese sentiment," he says.

Meanwhile, some African politicians also transfer the responsibility for their countries' economic problems to the Chinese in an attempt to further their political popularity. For example, former Zambian president Michael Sata was elected in 2011 partly thanks to anti-Chinese sentiment, calling salaries at mines "slave wages" and threatening to deport Chinese investors ignoring Zambian labor laws.

"If you are an African leader, it is very easy to use stereotyping for your own benefit. No one says that 'the British' do this and 'the Americans' do that, but it is easy to put the Chinese under one label and say 'the Chinese' are all this and that," he says.

A lot of these stereotypes have their origins in the fact that many education systems in Africa were developed under British and French colonialism, and all the same stereotypes that had existed in Europe spread to Africa, Mohan says.

But such stereotyping is not constructive, because it creates potential loss of business and growth for Africa. "The Chinese state firms will not be affected but the independent migrants will feel threatened and leave to invest elsewhere.

"Many Chinese are in fact reinvesting in Africa and not necessarily taking the money back to China. But if the political situation in Africa gets worse, they will move together with their businesses and money," Mohan says.

Encouragingly, the Chinese government is already trying to alleviate misunderstandings and misconceptions by communicating more through the media and creating a good public perception of China through aid projects.

Furthermore, the Chinese embassies in Africa have spoken out against illegal Chinese immigrants, to show that they only support Chinese businesses and immigrants that follow Africa's local regulations and laws.

If a good relationship is maintained, Chinese immigrants can bring many benefits to Africa, including capital to aid Africa's expansion and a hardworking attitude that can inspire African workers, Mohan says.

"Many Chinese companies like the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei train Africans because they believe that the best people in the market would be the locals and not the expatriate Chinese," he says.

"The Chinese can bring supply networks, capital and technology. The technology is not the best, but it does the job and the prices are low. If the locals could learn to be as focused and hardworking as the Chinese, that would be great."

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/23/2015 page32)