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The initiative targets, without naming them, Westerners. On September 29, China tabled a resolution denouncing “The legacy of colonialism” before the UN Human Rights Council, which brings together 47 states. The text, adopted on October 8 without major consequences, denounces “Economic exploitation, inequalities within states between them, systemic racism, violations of the rights of indigenous peoples, contemporary forms of slavery and attacks on cultural heritage”. A parade against the critics against the brutal colonial practices of Beijing towards the Tibetan and Uighur minorities.
For Antoine Kernen, specialist in “Chinafrique” at the University of Lausanne, who co-edited the “Emerging States in Africa” dossier in the journal International critic (number 89), China knew “To build cheaply the image of a generous power” on the continent, but its critical discourse on colonialism could backfire.
Where does the idea, for Beijing, to denounce the Western colonial heritage come from?
For China, accused of neocolonialism in Africa and elsewhere, this is clearly a counterattack. Beijing takes up the argument and sends it back to Europeans and Westerners who have a colonial past. This rhetorical game takes place in international arenas where China is often in a weak position on human rights. It is not badly played on her part and she has arguments, having herself undergone Western colonialism. Especially since at the same time, in academic circles, the questioning of the colonial heritage and questions of race are on the rise.
Would she have done it twenty years ago?
No, because China was then almost non-existent at the international level. Above all, she wanted to avoid being accused of human rights violations. The big change came with Xi Jinping [le président chinois]. He wants to show that China does not submit to a Western world order. Twenty years ago, the country only had a foreign economic policy, today it has a story that goes with it.
Can the message carry to African governments?
In West African countries, there is often a background of anti-colonialism denouncing France or the West. Africa therefore did not need China to develop such a discourse. Moreover, this discourse is not really new in China either: it goes back to the Bandung conference in 1955, then to the non-aligned movement. From the 1950s, when China invented a foreign policy and sought to position itself as a leader of the third world, it highlighted its past as a country colonized by the Western powers. Even today, this story allows him to cultivate his difference with them.
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