The Eritrean president is among dozens of current and former African leaders who attended Chinese military schools such as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Command College in Nanjing – which hosts the highest number of African students.
Another attendee was Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power through a military coup that ousted long-time ruler Robert Mugabe in November 2017. He was one of Zimbabwe’s military chiefs who trained in Nanjing and was part of the core team in his country’s liberation struggle.
Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki has spoken of his fond memories of doing military training in China. Photo: AFP
The study said Chinese diplomats have hinted that the pre-pandemic training levels will be resumed “as quickly as possible”. During his five-nation African visit in January, Qin Gang, China’s former foreign minister, said Beijing was going to “accelerate the promotion of China-Africa physical exchanges, including military education,” as a top priority.
Nantulya said in terms of military presence in Africa, China is outmatched by its Western peers across nearly every metric. The US, UK and France each have at least 50 military attachés in the continent; China has 21. Western countries have more than 50 bases and other facilities – the US alone has 27 military outposts – while China has one.
In terms of African-based professional military education, too, China has a much smaller presence on African soil. Between them, France, the US and UK conduct at least 40 year-round programmes with defence colleges and academies, whereas China has PLA instructors and “training missions” in only two known countries, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, as per publicly available data.
However, Nantulya said, African militaries appreciate the fact that China offers far more scholarships than Western countries.
“African officers do not face the same vetting prior to enrolling in Chinese military schools that they encounter in Western ones,” Nantulya said.
Providing training to African militaries helps strengthen relationships as part of a soft diplomacy measure. Photo: EPA
Dr Lina Benabdallah, a China-Africa expert and associate professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, said for the US, India, the EU and others who prefer to undertake training on African soil, their thinking is that it is cost-efficient.
“Instead of flying in hundreds of officers to the US and having to pay for their room and board, it is much cheaper to send a team of trainers into these countries and do on-site training. Of course, knowledge of the local terrain is also advantageous for this approach,” Benabdallah said.
But for China, she said, “there is a soft diplomacy objective that comes with inviting officers to China for this training”. Benabdallah said these officers get to travel across the country, see Chinese facilities, visit party schools, military bases, and get to meet many more people than if a team of five people from China travelled to their respective countries.
The training in China nearly shut down during Covid-19, but as it returns to normal, African governments are taking full advantage, David Shinn, from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said.
“Increasingly, China is seen as an alternative source to Western training,” he said. Shinn added that as Chinese military equipment becomes more common in African militaries, it stands to reason there is a preference to train with it.
“China has concluded, as Western governments did years ago, that providing the training is in its interest. It permits the strengthening of personal relationships and the ability to extend influence in African countries.”
He said another appealing feature for some African governments is the fact Chinese training does not come with admonishments about the need for civilian control of the military and avoidance of human rights abuses.
