One-party state as an export product
How China trains political leaders in Africa
By Marcel Grzanna
November 1, 2023, 6:22 p.m
At a political leadership school in Tanzania, Chinese lecturers extol the virtues of a government above the law. Contrary to repeated assurances, Beijing is exporting its authoritarian model to democratically governed countries.
World export champion China is suspected of selling not only goods, services and technologies, but also its authoritarian government system abroad. Just as the USA promoted the spread of democracy globally, especially in the 20th century, Beijing may, in turn, want to make autocratic rule palatable to the world.
So far, however, there has been nothing more than circumstantial evidence of this. Especially since Beijing is defending itself against the accusation of trying to impose its political system on anyone. According to Beijing, interference in the internal affairs of other states is taboo. After all, China itself slaps the finger on anyone who interferes in matters that China defines as domestic.
However, the representation is increasingly becoming cracked. A joint investigation by the US online medium Axios and the Danish newspaper “Politen” indicates that the Chinese Communist Party promotes autocratic structures in democracies. In focus: the south of Africa.
Key elements of authoritarian governance
Chinese experts sent from Beijing to train African leaders teach at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania. The course content includes China’s President Xi Jinping’s concept of “targeted poverty reduction” and Chinese climate policy. Nothing objectionable in itself. But according to the report, students from six countries will also be taught key elements of authoritarian governance.
For example, the Chinese lecturers recommend that a ruling party should stand above the state organs and the courts – as is usual in a dictatorship. Another tip from the autocracy ambassadors: strict party discipline to ensure ideology.
The school, which opened in 2022, is aimed primarily at officials from six self-proclaimed liberation parties in southern Africa: the Tanzania Revolutionary Party, the ANC of South Africa, the Swapo of Namibia, the MPLA of Angola, the ZANU-PF of Zimbabwe and the Frelimo from Mozambique. All six parties have been democratically elected to head the governments of their respective countries and some have been in power for many years.
For China it is about “the national liberation” of its partner countries
Young members of government parties are explicitly trained at the school. Oppositions are left out. For political scientist Anne-Marie Brady from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, this is a clear case of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. “When you don’t support the entire political system, but just one party, you promote authoritarianism,” Brady told Axios.
The school was financed with Chinese money. The flags of the parties are flying on the campus and China’s national flag is flying in the middle. At the laying of the foundation stone in 2018, Xi Jinping selected the sextet in a greeting message as the most important forces in southern Africa “to lead national liberation and economic construction in their respective countries.”
The export of authoritarianism is still considered controversial among scientists because it has so far been difficult to substantiate. The New Silk Road global infrastructure project has plunged many target countries for Chinese investments into debt traps, but no autocratization of the affected states has yet been observed. However, Daniel Mattingly of Yale University, whose research focuses on authoritarian politics in China, finds it “remarkable” that there are students who left school with the realization that “we need to move to a much more one-party state model.”
Allies in the new world order
For China, the autocratization of democratic states would be attractive for several reasons. The country could more easily assert its economic interests there because the opposition and civil society would have no influence whatsoever. Exporting its authoritarian system could also secure the People’s Republic allies in a new world order in which the importance of the USA is to be reduced.
China is trying to establish good connections, particularly where valuable raw materials are attractive. With the growing BRICS alliance, Beijing has already created a new center of power. However, large democratic economies such as India and Brazil are also members of the alliance, which strongly represent their own interests and whose solidarity with China has limits.
In Africa, on the other hand, China’s economic power appears to have a seemingly limitless appeal. The official school in Tanzania is not the only channel through which China’s party-state spreads its messages to African leaders. As early as May 2019, representatives of the Zimbabwean ruling party ZANU-PF attended an ideological training session run by the CP. We need to talk about the powers of the ruling party, suggested ZANU-PF leader Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri at the time. Two years ago, the party opened its first ideological training school for party cadres and officials.
“Cornerstone for supporting China’s influence in the Global South”
China has also put out feelers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2020, the CCP held a virtual training session for around 50 mid- to senior-level officials of the Workers’ Party. The core issue at the time: How the governing party could play a leading role in social and economic development.
“Despite its undemocratic character, the CCP in the Global South is actively promoting its party-state model as the ideal path to rapid modernization and ensuring political stability,” authoritarianism expert Benjamin R. Young from the School of Government and Public Affairs in Virginia told Nikkei Asia.
This isn’t a big surprise for Young. The International Liaisons Department of the CPC Central Committee has for years been involved in building and maintaining relations with foreign political parties, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. Xi Jinping has reprioritized this outreach “as a cornerstone for supporting China’s growing influence in and around the Global South.”
As part of the cooperation between the parties, Beijing is exporting its principles of centralization and autocratic one-party rule to developing countries. At the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania there are six developing countries at once.