China-Cameroonian relations
Map indicating locations of Cameroon and China

Cameroon
China

China and Cameroon established bilateral relations on March 26, 1971.[1]: 347  Cameroon is an adherent to the One China Policy.[2]

Political relations

Embassy of Cameroon in China

In the 1960s, China supported armed struggle by the Union des Populations du Cameroon (UPC) against the government of Ahmadou Ahidjo.[1]: 23  In 1970, the Ahidjo government defeated the UPC.[1]: 23  In 1971, Cameroon established relations with China.[1]: 23 

In the 2000s, leading politicians paid state visits to and from each country; these included Cameroonian President Paul Biya's visit for a conference in 2006 and Hu Jintao's visit to Cameroon in 2007.[2]

Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi visited Cameroon on 12 January 2014.[3]

Cameroon was one of 53 countries, that in June 2020, backed the Hong Kong national security law at the United Nations.[4]

Economic development

Since the first Forum on China Africa Cooperation in 2000, Beijing has successfully delivered $2.4 billion in development finance to Cameroon.[5] $87 million of that total falls under the OECD-DAC criteria for Official Development Assistance. Major projects executed by the Chinese government in Cameroon include:

  • Construction of the Kribi Deep Seaport funded by a FCFA 207,270 billion loan from the Exim Bank of China[6]
  • A FCFA 243 billion loan from China Exim bank for construction of the Memve'ele hydroelectric Dam in Nyabizan[7]
Memve'ele hydroelectric Dam Project
  • Construction of a malaria research center at Yaounde's Hospital of Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics[8]

Yearly trade topped 854 million US dollars in 2008, before dropping to 813 million US dollars in 2009 due to the global recession.[2]

Criticism

In the 2000s, some in Cameroon considered the economic relationship to be a form of neo-colonialism; this was mainly due to a perception that Chinese traders flooded the Cameroonian market with cheap but extremely fragile manufactured goods, which stymied the development of local industries.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Shinn, David H.; Eisenman, Joshua (2023). China's Relations with Africa: a New Era of Strategic Engagement. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-21001-0.
  2. 1 2 3 Backgrounder: Relations between China, Cameroon People's Daily Online, March 23, 2010
  3. ↑ "Chinese Foreign Minister Due In Cameroon Soon". CameroonOnline.org. 2015-01-05. Archived from the original on 2015-01-06. Retrieved 2015-01-05.
  4. ↑ Lawler, Dave (2 July 2020). "The 53 countries supporting China's crackdown on Hong Kong". Axios. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  5. ↑ Austin Strange, Bradley C. Parks, Michael J. Tierney, Andreas Fuchs, Axel Dreher, and Vijaya Ramachandran. 2013. China’s Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection. CGD Working Paper 323. Washington DC: Center for Global Development.
  6. ↑ Austin Strange, Bradley C. Parks, Michael J. Tierney, Andreas Fuchs, Axel Dreher, and Vijaya Ramachandran. 2013. China’s Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection. Project 350. CGD Working Paper 323. Washington DC: Center for Global Development.
  7. ↑ Austin Strange, Bradley C. Parks, Michael J. Tierney, Andreas Fuchs, Axel Dreher, and Vijaya Ramachandran. 2013. China’s Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection. Project 289. CGD Working Paper 323. Washington DC: Center for Global Development.
  8. ↑ Austin Strange, Bradley C. Parks, Michael J. Tierney, Andreas Fuchs, Axel Dreher, and Vijaya Ramachandran. 2013. China’s Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection. Project 22850. CGD Working Paper 323. Washington DC: Center for Global Development.
  9. ↑ China Invades Country With Cheap, Fragile Goods AllAfrica.com via postnewsline.com, 28 August 2008

Further reading

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