The past decade has seen a staggering increase in Chinese investment flows in Africa, leaping from USD 392 million in 2005 to USD 2520 million in 2012. Although there is a growing understanding that China\u2019s impact on sub-Saharan Africa is far-reaching and complex, and that Chinese investments on the continent are highly diversified, the majority of business & human rights analysts have tended to focus primarily on China\u2019s seemingly insatiable hunger for natural resources.<\/p>\n
Undeniably, even if China\u2019s African adventure is not all about oil and mines, Africa\u2019s raw materials and China\u2019s \u2018Go Out\u2019 strategy have paved the way for an acceleration of Beijing\u2019s economic engagement with a vast array of African countries.<\/p>\n
Chinese Government officials often describe the burgeoning Sino-African ties as \u2018win-win partnerships\u2019, emphasizing how their \u2018non-interference\u2019 policy truly allows African countries to choose their own development path.<\/p>\n
Against this background, doubts may arise with regard to the environmental and social standards applied by Chinese companies conducting business overseas, especially in post-conflict states with poor human rights records and inadequate governance structures.<\/p>\n
The case discussed in this paper concerns the operations of the Chadian branch of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).\u00a0In January 2013, the independent research institute International Peace Information Service (IPIS) was contracted by a Berlin-based network of NGOs working on Chad, the Arbeitsgruppe Tschad, to shed light on the gaps between theory and practice of the stakeholder engagement plan designed and implemented by CNPC in their R\u00f4nier project. IPIS was also tasked to facilitate the dialogue between the company and the largest coalition of Chadian civil society organizations working on natural resources, the Commission Permanente P\u00e9trole N\u2019Djamena (CPPN).
\nAfter introducing the context of Sino-Chadian relations and the details of the R\u00f4nier operations, this study will focus on the discrepancies noted between CNPC\u2019s policies on paper and the reality on the ground in Chad.<\/p>\n
It is our hope that this document could feed into the current discussion on stakeholder engagement in large-scale oil projects in Chad and serve as baseline for both CNPC and CPPN to revise current engagement policies and progressively improve their engagement practices, even more so in light of the next phases in the R\u00f4nier project and of CNPC\u2019s interest in developing corporate-NGO partnerships.<\/p>\n