China and Ethiopia have been establishing diplomatic relations since December 1, 1970, when China agreed to recognize Eritrea as Ethiopian, in exchange for Haile Selassie’s recognition of Taiwan as Chinese. In addition to this, in 1971, Ethiopia supported China’s bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations, and it voted in favor of admitting Beijing. These two countries were not only in an alliance but also, at that time, had the same economic and political (adopted socialism) status. Both China and Ethiopia unveiled weak economic growth with socialism political ideology.
In 1974, after the demise of the monarchical political system, a weak military wing called Dreg held power to govern the country. This military government tried to diffuse the ideology of socialism, but it could not sustain it by integrating it with political culture and social norm of Ethiopia which were influenced by centuries’ monarchic political system. After the collapse of the Derg, the other militia government, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRDF), held power in 1991.
However, the EPRDF was more significantly affected by revolutionary democracy, which had ambiguous political ideologies that held revolution and democracy under ethnocentric federalism. The country’s economic structure was oligarchy as well. The economic system of the country was dominated by a small group of Tigrayan elites. As a result, the EPRDF ruled Ethiopia for 27 years and brought about both political and economic breakdowns without developing and enacting an appropriate political ideology and economic approach for Ethiopian societies.
After 27 years, in 2018, through internal government reform, the Prosperity Party replaced the EPRDF and started to govern the country. The Prosperity Party brings unity or synergy, an ambiguous political doctrine, to the ethnic political arrangement. However, synergy has not aligned with ethnic political culture, which values autonomy and control over oneself. In addition to synergy, the Prosperity Party has also been putting liberal economic policies into practice. In the poor country, Ethiopia, the economic reform encourages privatization, which lets the market self-regulate, disregarding the state of the country’s economy. As a result, the country experiences sophisticated corruption and economy control by few elites. This has its role on high rates of inflation in the country.
On the other hand, China, which has a well-known philosophical tradition called Confucian philosophy with its way of philosophical thinking (Zhonogdalogy), easily integrated socialism with its culture. Confucianism, which is taken as the idea of Confucius in the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, is a scholarly tradition that is taken as a political ideology.
Confucianism believed that to restore order, society had to encourage virtues. Confucianism values culture, cooperation, deontology ethics, and humanity. China has incorporated Confucianism into its educational system as well as its political ideology (socialism). Contextualized, this helps Chinese to instigate the economic and political development. Nowadays, China is emerging as world economy power and expanding investment in Africa. China, the home of the world largest population, has been assuring food security for citizens.
On the contrary, Ethiopia, which is the fifth largest recipient of Chinese Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Africa, is currently caught in the whirlwind of political and economic challenges. Ethiopia has been in civil war and ethnic conflicts since 1974. Ethiopia has insignificant economy development and the consequence of this has been seen in its people. More than million people of Ethiopia live with drought, famine, and poverty.
This resulted from the country’s attempt to impose socialism and liberalism without first placing them within the framework of its political and social cultures. Liberal and socialist policies can both be beneficial, depending on how they are carried out.
However, Ethiopia has embraced socialism and liberalism without considering the country’s pre-existing political culture, ethnic politics, economic development, or diversity of social norms. Consequently, it makes sense to argue that Ethiopians have been accepting European political and economic doctrines without placing them in the context of their own indigenous knowledge, customs, and cultures, which has caused the political and economic systems to collapse.
Once upon a time, socialism caused Ethiopia to be in disarray from 1974 to 1991. With this condition, Ethiopia has been baptizing liberalism in the recent past since 1991. Since 1974, Europeans have been attempting to use institutions to carry out their ideology. Ethiopia’s political, economic, and educational institutions and policies have been shaped and altered by European models.
Ethiopia, the world’s oldest civilized state, possesses traditional knowledge about politics, economics, security, resolving conflicts, culture, and medicine. Ethiopia was good at handling diversity for a very long time. Yejoka Qicha, an indigenous democratic governance system, exists in Ethiopia. Individuals’ economic independence held a significant place in the minds of Ekub[1]. In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia was a major maker of security services. It was preferred to use traditional Ethiopian conflict resolution techniques like Shimglna and Abbagar over contemporary ones. Millions of lives have been saved by Ethiopia’s traditional medicine. The country is home to many fascinating and unique cultures.
However, since 1960, Ethiopian elites have been accepting Europeans’s political and economic ideology without contextualizing and mingling with Ethiopia’s thousands-year-old culture.
This has put the country in political turmoil and an economic slump. It has been leading the generation toward alienation and mental colonization. It has been causing indigenous political and economic institutions to decay and the easy establishment of modern imperialism. Finally, this will contribute to either the collapse of the state or the reconstruction of non-Ethiopia’s essence as Ethiopia with a Western model.
Before this happened, Ethiopians had a path to escape. This path is taking a lesson from China, which has been compromising Europe’s political philosophy with its culture and societal thinking, which led to the reconstruction of Great China within existing political, economic, and social cultures.
[1] Ekub is an Ethiopian traditional money-saving method or technique that operates outside the formal banking or financial system.
Source link : https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/04/26/what-does-ethiopia-learn-from-china/
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Publish date : 2024-04-26 07:00:00
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