After reviewing and analyzing all economic, diplomatic, and strategic approaches, including the respective contribution, the positive aspects of China’s influence outweighs the negatives referring to the development of Ethiopia.
Nevertheless, the exciting part is how different perspective perceives the Sino-Ethiopian relation, thus leading to a more concrete statement about how the influence of the Chinese on Ethiopia can be evaluated.\\ Various angles show how affected countries adapt to changes and if there is a real benefit out of it or it is rather a propagandized reaction of either the Chinese, Ethiopia itself, or the western world.
n 2015, it was a quite memorable speech from former U.S. president, Barack Obama, who addressed the delegation at the organization’s new headquarters built and financed by Chinese in Ethiopia. Both empowered countries, the U.S. and China, were competing for more influence in Ethiopia. According to a profound article by “Quartz Africa,” China has put more activities in a place surrounded by vast investments. The fact that China and Ethiopia share many similarities, the article insists that this relieves trade relations and further cooperative activities. The very first beginning of approaches happened when both imperial backgrounds ended, and both countries became republics. Both countries witnessed an era of imperial history where already a few formal diplomatic relations between countries were established.
Western sources claim that it displays one of the aspects why China can incorporate businesses with Ethiopia a lot easier than the countries located in the Western world. As stated in the Business Day article: “Both countries feel secure about their pasts and have a defined vision for their futures (Cowen, 2018) [\ldots]”\cite{EthiopiaChinafast-growingeconomy}. As the article emphasizes, both countries share similarities attributable to their history, including the change of regime, the historical kingdoms, and dynasties both have witnessed and represented. Visitors go to each of both countries and pay homage to the people being in charge decades ago. Once people show interest in both countries’ historical background, they might recognize how Ethiopia and China share similarities and that a particular historical connection between them exists.
Indeed, in the same article, issues are mentioned which aggravate Chinese joint venture projects in Ethiopia.\\ Especially, the ICT sector is affected, which is one of China’s assisting fields regarding foreign direct investment. The expansion of the network in the country is underway, and connection to other countries via the social platform, for example, has been improved through the support of China. Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s internet is among the least free in the world, as outlined in the “Quartz Africa” article (Kou, 2016) \cite{OnlyChinaSyriaandIranrankworsethanEthiopia}. A non-profit organization called Freedom house has ranked Ethiopia ahead of only Iran, Syria, and China, out of 65 countries concerning access to the internet and the release of country-specific information. Compared to all other countries in the continent, Ethiopia has positioned itself as the worst of any. Anti-government protests are blamed for this poor ranking. The Western world gained the most attention when an Ethiopian marathon runner made up a gesture used by protesters at the Olympics. Consequently, Ethiopian authorities have shut down all connections on social media, mobile, and internet platforms. According to the Western world, this is depicting a risky situation because an over and over six-month state of emergency has been declared imposing a ban where no posts or access to information about the protests on social media are allowed. In addition to that, counter-terrorism laws have been passed, putting pressure on journalists and are even sentencing journalists who post or spread country-specific information. Additionally, most of the Western articles claim that the government-owned Ethio telecom uses its monopoly on internet access, limiting access to telecommunication for people living in rural areas. According to the “Quartz Africa” article, Chinese investment in the International Communication and Technology sector is only helping EthioTelecom to maintain its hold on the sector and to continue censoring and surveilling citizens (Mohammed et al., 2015) \cite{Westinshadow}. Concerning the external and internal measures for developing Ethiopia both economically and socially, the youth is the target group as they are more receptive to external changes and adapt faster to changing environments.\\
Apart from that, the youth make a great part of Ethiopia’s total population.
The “Guardian” (2018) has analyzed that the circumstances of almost 200 young Ethiopians across the Red Sea are aggravating. They try to reach the Gulf because they see no hope in their country due to political insecurity and lack of job possibilities \cite{Deadlyjourneys}.\\ China offers Ethiopian youth to get scholarships when considering to study in China. The students will be selected through a Confucius Institute, a Chinese government-affiliated language and culture center being established in Ethiopia. On top of that, Chinese companies provide the construction, foster telecommunication network, and equipment for Ethiopians. This Western article implies that China already stands for an alternative to the West and that China’s position in the country seems to be deep-seated. The article also states that China will benefit from all partnerships and long-term plans provided to Ethiopia. Therefore, the Western world must react if it wants to catch up with the Chinese. As stated by an article from CNN, cars drive through the city on smooth Chinese roads, cranes, sewing machines, and tourists arrive at the Chinese-upgraded airport while using modern built railways (Marsh, 2018) \cite{Skyscraperstrainsandroads}.\\
The Chinese premier Li Keqiang announced that he expects a trading volume for Ethiopia of approximately 100 billion dollars (Mohammed et al., 2015) \cite{Westinshadow}.
Mostly in the Ethiopian capital city, many signs outlining the plan for Chinese constructed roads in Addis and further trading activities are noticeable. Most of the articles emphasize how the capital city has been radically transformed, and immense skyscrapers, including the 46-story glass tower, will be the tallest in Ethiopia by 2020, giving the city a different flavor. In line with this, a journal about Chinese perspectives published by a French author Cabestan (2012) outlines that Ethiopia mainly exports resources to China and focuses on buying equipment and machines from China \cite{ChinaandEthiopiaAuthoritarian}. The article acknowledges all Chinese actions in Ethiopia, where many projects have already been realized and contributed to the economic development.\\Beyond that, other Western sources, state that Ethiopia’s arm is being twisted by the influence of China related to giving high amounts of loans. The Western world fears the debt-trap diplomacy, where China can use this strategy to put pressure on Ethiopia. This will undoubtedly lead to a new way of colonialism by giving the East-African country no feasibility of repaying their debt.\\ As mentioned in Forbes, the countries need to spend 130-170 billion dollars per year to meet all infrastructural needs. Consequently, one of the afore-mentioned massive water projects ended up costing Ethiopia nearly a quarter of its total 2016 budget (Shepard, 2019) \cite{WhatChinaisreallyup}. According to Tesfaye (2020), China provides Ethiopia with mutual benefit loans, wherein Chinese companies operate businesses and Ethiopia obtains finance for development \cite{ChinainEthiopia}. As a comparison to the Western world Hackenesch (2013) stated that European and U.S. donors in terms of financial flows to Ethiopia would not go beyond development assistance, for instance, loans or export credits [p.17] \cite{AidDonorMeetsStrategicPartner}.\\ On the one hand, Western countries see Ethiopia as a potential target for future trades and economic advantages and on the other hand, due to political instabilities, it is not considered to be a secured place to conduct business.\\ Speaking about the political instabilities, the government shutdown in the ICT sector was one of the main burdens and adverse events on one of the largest floricultural companies in the world, Esmeralda Farms. Esmeralda Farms has been located in southern America and mainly steered by the U.S..\\ In fact, the company has managed to gather 150 ha of land in Ethiopia, and they have imported flowers from Ethiopia that generated 30-40\% of their turnover (Flowerweb, 2016) \cite{LossesEsmeraldaFarm}. In 2016 the company’s land had been attacked by rebels and destroyed, resulting in economic damage and Esmeralda Farm backed out of a bargain.\\ Due to this incident and political instability as criteria, the Western world seems to be quite skeptical concerning further investment actions in Ethiopia.
Since Chinese minerals tend to be scarce, preying on vulnerable nations like Ethiopia with substantial natural resources reserves becomes imminent.
As author Cabestan (2012) states, China’s assistance serves its own interests by promising economic emancipation in exchange for accessing Ethiopia’s natural resources [p.61] \citep{ChinaandEthiopiaAuthoritarian}. The Western perspective is generally not satisfied with the fact that China is putting lots of effort into establishing further long-term alliances with Ethiopia. China is not interested in having a fair bilateral agreement with Ethiopia but also seeks to quench its natural resources thirst.
As a result, the Western world fears Ethiopia in terms of political instability.