China is the world’s biggest country, populated by 1.4 billion people. It also has the world’s
second largest economy behind the United States, with a national income in excess of $12 trillion
and annual economic growth over the last 30 years often reaching double digits.
This might seem remarkable to people who still see China as a communist country, but Beijing
prefers to characterise the country as being ‘socialist with Chinese characteristics’.
Suffice to say, the state maintains a pervasive role in ‘managing’ China’s economics,
politics and society.
But over the last thirty years, the Chinese government has engaged in a reform programme
that has enabled private enterprise to flourish. The reforms have also sought to turn China
outwards so that it trades more with the rest of the world and builds influence across the
globe.
Yet as China has changed and grown, challenges have emerged. An already large population
has continued to grow placing huge strain upon the country’s resources. Demand for
infrastructure has risen dramatically, whilst the consumption of resources such as oil and
gas has also increased.
However, the country’s economic reformation Has recently, in relative terms, begun to
stall, with growth now down to around 6%). The Chinese government therefore
worries about the future, especially how it will meet the needs of its population whilst
at the same time sustaining the country’s economic growth.
But one of the ways in which Bejing hopes to tackle these issues is by building its
sport industry, which it wants to become the world’s biggest by 2025.
Since 2015, the country’s government, businesses and investors have
therefore taken an active role in acquiring overseas football assets.
Several clubs have been procured, including England’s Wolverhampton Wanderers, Southampton
and West Bromwich Albion, Ado Den Haag in the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic’s
Slavia Prague.
Chinese companies are also now leading sponsors of FIFA and several big names have headed
eastwards, former Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez being the most notable recent
example.
China views football as means to various ends; from enhancing image and reputation through
to building the nation’s brand and enabling it to project soft power influence. And whilst
many are familiar with the sums spent on domestic football in the country, and the investment
in European clubs, less is known about what China is doing in Africa.
The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) in Gabon was the latest in a long line of tournaments
into which the East Asian giant has significantly invested.
Gabon previously hosted the ACN in 2012, when two new stadiums were constructed for the
event (which was co-hosted with Equatorial Guinea).
One of Gabon’s two stadiums, in Libreville, was funded and constructed by China. For 2017,
two additional new stadiums were used (as well as the existing stadium in Libreville
and another in Franceville). The two new venues, the Stade
d’Oyem and the Stade de Port-Gentil, were funded by China, and designed and constructed
by the company Shanghai General Construction.
It was hardly surprising therefore that ahead of the tournament,
Presidents Ali Bongo of Gabon and Xi Jinping of China met one another in Beijing. The visit
was marked by China’s announcement that Gabon would become a comprehensive cooperation
partner (raised from its status as a bilateral partner). Tellingly, Xi asserted that China’s
“willingness to deepen cooperation [would be] based on mutual benefit.”
Football, specifically the ACN, therefore nicely connected the dots in a Gabonese-Chinese
relationship that already saw the African nation sending 14.2%of all its exports to
its East Asian partner.
Unsurprisingly, Gabon’s biggest export to China is crude petroleum, although it also
sells a large quantity of manganese ore, which is widely used in iron and steel production.
China’s game plan for 2019’s African Cup of Nations was supposed to be the same. Cameroon
was initially supposed to serve as tournament host, which inevitably attracted the Chinese
government’s interest. The West African nation’s biggest export is crude petroleum
and it rapidly became apparent that carbon fuel deposits would again prompt China’s
interest, with its investors quickly committing to the funding and construction of key tournament
infrastructure across Cameroon.
However, late last year the country was stripped of its right to host the tournament by the
Confederation of African Football. Egypt stepped in as a replacement host though, unfortunately
for China (and its strategy in Africa), the country
is not a carbon fuel producer on the same scale as others in Africa are. However, China’s
use of football as a means to an end still became evident at the tournament.
Telecommunications giant Huawei quickly become an event partner, which it utilised as a basis
for the African rollout of its 5G network.
This extended what is now a long history of Chinese involvement in the tournament. In
2008, the country funded the renovation of two of the stadiums used in Ghana’s hosting
of the competition, and paid for the construction of the others. Two years later, for the Angolan
edition of AfCon, China financed and constructed all four of the stadiums used.
It shows a very obvious pattern, but also details how football in Africa is serving
as a bilateral diplomatic tool that is intended to benefit all parties involved.