China pushes for peace in areas of conflict

China is becoming increasingly active in its efforts to forge peace and security in conflict-affected states, according to an expert.

Chris Alden, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, spoke at a panel discussion about emerging powers and countries in conflict at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Tuesday.

China has seen a gradual increase in engagement with post-conflict states in the past few years, primarily by ensuring peacekeeping and development of African nations, Alden said.

"Chinese relationships towards these Western ideas … have been to pick apart each of these and say, ‘Does this work in this particular instance?' and ask a set of practicality questions," Alden said.

The result of China's activity includes several missions to build infrastructure in Africa, which the Chinese government has prioritized in the past.

"China has provided South Sudan and Angola the basis of a new infrastructure, which are necessary to get the economy going," Alden said.

The overseas missions are not without peril.

"2011 was a turning point for China," he said. "In Libya, there were 50 infrastructure projects of some consequence, and there were about 35,000 Chinese individuals. Both of these were jeopardized by the NATO bombing and subsequent chaos."

"This was the real turning point as far as China's recognition that it had some exposed interests in a number of countries in Africa and beyond; it now has to find strategies to preserve and secure those," Alden said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a March 8 press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature's annual session that China will deliver on investment and aid promises made to Africa at last December's Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), despite a global economic slowdown.

Wang responded to an African reporter's question on whether the economy would affect China's commitment.

President Xi Jinping announced at the FOCAC that China would carry out 10 cooperation plans with Africa.

Wang said that by encouraging more Chinese companies to invest in Africa, China is looking to help the continent accelerate its industrialization and boost its growth capacity.

"These plans cannot come at a better time, as they are designed precisely to help Africa deal with the new challenges from the international economic situation," he added.

Three months after the summit, China has contacted more than 20 African countries to follow up on summit outcomes, with a number of plans soon to materialize and the China-Africa fund for industrial cooperation now running.

Wang pointed out that Sino-Africa diplomatic ties went back 60 years, and the deep bond of friendship, mutual trust and support between the two sides remains unchanged.

At the summit, many African leaders stated publicly that China had never colonized Africa, rather it helped the continent emerge from poverty and to develop.

They also said Africa had been looking for a dependable partner with mutual interests, and eventually found such a partner in China, Wang told the press.

China's aid and investment focus is on long-term infrastructure projects in underdeveloped countries, Alden said.

"Chinese aid has taken as its point of departure … mutual benefit or win-win. What that really means is that there is a belief that sustainability is found in projects which have a commercial basis that both parties recognize.

"Grant aid is useful in certain respects, but ultimately, longer-term sustainable economic projects are founded on the logic of business, the logic of the market," Alden said.

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to this story.