Johannesburg, South Africa —
The Beijing-funded African Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is due to open in the next few months. The controversial project is just one example of China’s increasing investment in health care on the African continent since the pandemic as it builds what analysts and Beijing call a “Health Silk Road.”
The reasons behind China’s investments in health care in Africa, according to experts, include the desire to increase its soft power as it vies with the West for influence on the continent, finding markets for its drugs and medical products and strengthening its position with international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO).
Some critics warn of more opportunistic motivations such as access to natural resources, political favors and even spying.
The $80 million African CDC headquarters is one China-funded health project that has proved contentious. It was originally envisioned as a U.S.-China-Africa collaboration, but when things soured between Washington and Beijing under the Trump administration — which pulled the U.S. out of the WHO — that plan collapsed, and the agreement was recrafted as one between China and the African Union (AU).
“The U.S. was eventually edged out and I think this was a diplomatic win for the Chinese,” Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the African Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA.
At the time, some U.S. officials suggested China was aiming to use the CDC to spy on Africa’s genomic data and gain control over African health management, which China has described as a “ridiculous” allegation.
“It shows that some people in the U.S. always make presumptions,” foreign ministry representative Hua Chunying said in 2020 during a regular press briefing.
Cameron Hudson, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former director for African affairs on the White House National Security Council, and previously an intelligence analyst in the Africa Directorate at the Central Intelligence Agency, said he still thinks spying could be a possibility in the new African CDC.
“I think Washington would have liked to be more involved in the building of the African CDC, if for no other reason than I think we have to assume that China will, you know, be able to monitor that building,” Hudson told VOA.
The African CDC is just one of China’s many health-related initiatives in Africa. Beijing has been promoting traditional Chinese medicine, opening clinics in many countries on the continent.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, China distributed personal protective equipment and provided vaccines to African nations. Last month, Africa’s largest vaccine cold-storage unit built by a Chinese company opened in Egypt. The North African country is also manufacturing China’s Sinovac vaccine locally for export to the rest of the continent.
These and many other forms of cooperation, such as the deployment of thousands of Chinese medical personnel to African countries, are all part of President Xi Jinping’s trademark Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has evolved from originally focusing on building infrastructure in developing countries to including a wide range of other sectors from technology to space to security to medicine.
“The Belt and Road program provides an institutional architecture for many other initiatives not just infrastructure,” said Nantulya.
In terms of its health projects “China stands a lot to gain: by way of diplomatic influence, by way of marketing the Belt and Road itself, but also in terms of marketing its health products,” added Nantulya, who said Beijing is “also trying to increase its competitive edge against the West.”
Asked if China’s health ambitions in Africa were intended to rival the U.S.’s, the Chinese Mission to the African Union responded by email: “Through concrete actions, China has helped African countries respond to various epidemics and diseases and build a public health system, promoting a China-Africa community of health.”
“China-Africa health cooperation is open and inclusive and does not prevent any third party from cooperating with Africa, and we welcome the international community to contribute to enhancing the accessibility of health products in Africa,” it continued. The mission said the CDC was expected to be completed in early 2023.
The U.S. said it has supported the Africa CDC since 2014 and earlier this year, signed an agreement with the Africa Union for continued cooperation which includes U.S. agencies helping the Africa CDC to develop its workforce and “capacity-building in vaccine manufacturing … .”