China-Africa Relations: An insight on influx of African students in China

By Cleopatra Ashley Ngwenya

The tremendous influx of African youths in China in the last decade has seen a major rise in the number of foreigners living in China. Almost two thirds of foreigners living in China are students, and not only do they study in China for a season, some actually, also graduate and apply for visas to live in China after graduation. They work in the different organizations in accordance to their acquired professions. China is becoming the number one destination for international education, which is quite surprising and incredible for a country whose major language is not common to the greater part of the world’s population.

China is well known for being one of the leading countries in technology development, and is famous for its beauteous tourist attractions such as The Great Wall in Beijing, Shaolin Temple in Henan Province and the Yellow mountains in Anhui province. Not only is China a major tourism destination, but it has also in recent years become a well of knowledge, opening its arms to a number of African nationals to pursue their studies. In previous years,  Africans fore-chose western universities to the eastern mainly because of the stereotypes  surrounding the eastern countries at that  time. Countries like America, United Kingdom and other European countries used to attract more  Africans, with some living and working in those countries even to date. That however, was before China  losened up on her foreign policy and opened her arms to the world.  The 21st century has seen a major turnaround of events, with more students from Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, (just to mention a few) migrating to China in search for education. 

An African student performs acrobatics on the commencement of their course in Cangzhou, north China's Hebei Province, May 13, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

China's  economic and financial state has dramatically increased over time making it the second largest economy in the world. Over the years, China has become more concerned with spreading its wings and stamping its geopolitical influence in other countries to the extent of attracting and assimilating numerous Africans into its systems.  Speaking to a few African students studying in china, a number of views were raised as to why most of them now prefer China as a destination for their higher education studies. Not only has there been an influx of African students in China, but also, the African market has become a great destination for Chinese investors. A notable number of Chinese nationals are opening and running businesses in African countries as a result, employment opportunities have escalated in a number of African countries. With this in mind, African students have in recent years decided to invest in their education so as to go back to their home countries and work in industries opened by the Chinese. The Chinese language Mandarin  however, is one of the most difficult if not the most difficult language in the world. The ability to speak this language amongst Africans  is  rare, only a few people are conversant with it. Nowadays, a person who speaks and writes Mandarin in Africa stands a better chance of being employed by high paying employers than one who doesn’t. In actual fact, because of the growing hoi polloi of Chinese nationals in Africa, knowledge of the Mandarin language is now becoming more of a necessity than just a mere want .  Mandarin is slowly but surely becoming one of the world’s most recognized official languages among job seekers, hence the sudden instreaming of African students to China.

On the other hand, the rising need for free and affordable education is also another causative factor for the migration of students to China. Since the launch of the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the year 2000, the Chinese government has made clear efforts to lure African students to China in order to enhance the government’s relations with the African populace.  According to Kenneth King, Professor Emeritus of the University of Edinburgh, China increased government scholarships from 2,000 awards in 2006 to 4,000 in 2009 and to 6,000 in 2015. This move by the Chinese government has given China both social and political vantage over its African contemporaries. It is quite interesting to note that the Chinese government is sponsoring more than 6000 Africans with a free education without any strings attached and it aims at increasing the number of scholarships given to African students to 30 000 by the year 2018. Contrary to the Chinese system, some countries do offer scholarships on the basis that the beneficiaries of the scholarships would serve in that country for a certain period of time and others on condition that the intellectual properties of the beneficiaries developed during the time they are studying in that particular country become the property of the state, but what would one do when they are receiving free education, except yield to the not-so favourable conditions. Due to China’s strict Visa policies, foreign students are not allowed to stay in the country after graduation, thus preventing the much-dreaded brain drain in African countries, and also making China the first country to empower Africans without necessarily taking advantage of them.

One major pull factor for foreign students in China are economic setbacks in their home countries. The number of foreign students coming from ailing economies is quite high compared to those coming from stabler economies. Many suffer the fear of an uncertain future and the consequences that might come with obtaining their academic qualifications from countries that have unfavorable political and socio-economic conditions. Although there are currently no translated statistics from China’s Ministry of Education detailing how many students come from which country, it is evident that the numbers are going up with each passing year. A publication by Cable News Network (CNN) dated June 30 2017 mentions that China’s Tsinghua University, one of the highly prestigious institutions in China had 111 Africans, mostly from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Morocco, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. A much recent unpublished survey by a student in Central China’s city of Zhengzhou shows that Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Wuhan are China’s top cities with a high concentration of African students. 

Although the quality of Education in China continues to receive mixed reviews, most African students are quite content with the fact that during their study period in China, they are not only able to learn the Chinese language, but they are also able to establish steady business relations which in turn become very useful in their own countries after their graduation.  

In as much as there are a number of benefits African students are gaining by choosing to learn in China, the Chinese government also to a greater extent is gaining favor in the eyes of its African counterparts with Chinese nationals being widely accepted as foreign traders in most African countries. In recent news, the world witnessed the stepping down of one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents, Robert Gabriel Mugabe from Zimbabwe on November 21 2017. A few weeks after his resignation, a number of Chinese investors were already showing interest in the promising southern African country which also is one country with the highest number of students studying in China. The relationship between China and Africa is one with mutual benefits which in the long run will see major developments in a lot of African countries resulting from the knowledge acquired in China by African students.

(Cleopatra Ashley Ngwenya, a Zimbabwean Environmental Researcher at Henan University of Technology)