The Normative Values Behind the Energy Strategies of the EU and China in Africa

Abstract

The article compares the foreign energy strategies of the EU and the PRC
on the African continent within the context of the e!orts of ensuring the
diversifiction of the supply of fossil fuels. Both actors are connecting some
sets of values to their strategies, and these values are integral to their
perception of the international environment. The main purpose of the
article is to compare these strategies, especially in the context of the values
that are connected with them – e.g. state sovereignty, human rights, and
social responsibility – and the impact of these values on the form of the
energetic strategies. While the EU urges normative values such as
democratic government, human rights and quality public domain
management, the PRC adheres to the values of non-interference, state
sovereignty and, last but not least, the principle of “One China”. Despite the
fact that, rhetorically, the two actors share some of the same principles,
they are applied di!erently by each actor due to the actors’ diametrically
di!erent understandings of these principles. In addition to that, it is
necessary to lay emphasis on the di!erence between the o"cial and the
actual strategies of both actors.