Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines Sino-African relations and their impact on Africa. It argues that Africa’s relationship with China has had a profound impact on key sectors in Africa—economic and political development, the media, infrastructural development, foreign direct investments, loans, debt peonage, and international relations. The authors also analyze the imperialist and neo-colonialist implications of this relationship and discuss the degree to which the relationship is beneficial to Africa.
Trade ReviewZhou Enlai's 1963–64 visits to 10 African states initiated closer ties between the PRC and Africa for the first time. Since then, China has become "the most dominant foreign power on the continent." But is the relationship mutually beneficial? Fifteen authors tackle this complex question, many of them focusing on barter arrangements, exchange of natural resources for low-interest loans, and infrastructure development. China in Africa is organized in three parts. Part 1 ("Early Contacts and Connections") reviews China-Egypt links, Chinese perspectives on Sino-African relations, the TAZARA Railway, systems of alliance, and development brought via the Belt and Road Initiative. The five chapters in part 2 ask whether a new imperialism or a new world order is emerging. Is China leading a wave of conquest and plunder, adopting a hands-off approach, or using multiple forms of soft power to gain influence? Part 3 examines China's regional footprints. Case studies include anti-Chinese sentiments in news coverage, China's development projects in Zimbabwe, its geographic impact on the continent, African perceptions of China and the Chinese, and "chopsticks mercantilism." The coeditors conclude that African leaders made their own continent "fragile" and hence open to—yet also requiring—development aid from China. This collection presents varied views of complex phenomena, reaching varied, interesting assessments. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers.
* Choice Reviews *
This collection is remarkable for confronting the challenges posed by the rise of China as a global economic and military power which has upset the post-World War II global balance of economic (and military) power. This collection offers insightful perspectives on bilateral and multilateral engagement of African countries with China, in the face of the specter of Chinese re-colonization of Africa through debt peonage.
-- Ayodeji Olukoju, University of Lagos
China in Africa: Imperialism and Partnership in Humanitarian Development provides a platform for unpacking China’s historical, multilateral, and bilateral relations with Africa’s regions and countries, and for critically examining the most recent trends in China's impact on Africa’s development. I recommend this book to scholars, practitioners, and readers with a keen interest in understanding the trajectory of China-Africa relations, and more fundamentally, how to channel the burgeoning relations towards reversing the effects of centuries and decades of Africa’s underdevelopment.
-- Cyril Obi, Social Science Research Council, New York
Table of ContentsPart I: Early Contacts and Connections
Chapter 1: Premier Zhou Enlai’s Excursions to Africa
Chapter 2: The Policy Framework of Sino-African Relations from the Chinese Perspective: A
Review of Selected policy papers and agreements
Chapter 3: Jamie Monson and the Historiography of China-Africa Relations: Focus on the
Tanzania-Zambia Railway
Chapter 4: Alliance Systems Redefined: Towards an Explanation of China’s Hands-Off
Approach to African Politics
Chapter 5: The Belt and Road Initiative in Africa: But What Kind of Developmental Power Does
China Have?
Part II: New-Imperialism or a New World Order
Chapter 6: China in Africa: The Fifth Wave of Conquest and Plunder?
Chapter 7: Changing Africa-China Relations: Colonialism or Partnership?
Chapter 8: Chinese and African Economic Relations: A New World Order or A New Form of
Colonialism?
Chapter 9: China’s Cultural Rapprochement: The Uses of Soft Power as a Form of Building
Alliances in Africa
Chapter 10: Politics and Governance: China’s hands-off approach to African politics
Part III: China’s Regional Footprints
Chapter 11: Reporting the Dragon: A Thematic Study of Anti-Chinese Sentiments in ‘China in
Africa’ News Coverage
Chapter 12: Chinese Economic Development Projects in Zimbabwe
Chapter 13: The March of the Red Dragon: The Geographic Footprints of Chinese Presence in
Africa
Chapter 14: China: Africa’s new Wise Men from the East? An Analysis of Africa’s Non-State and State Actors’ Perceptions of China and the Chinese
Chapter 15: Chinese Investments in Africa: ‘Chopsticks Mercantilism’
Conclusion: The Chinese and a Continent Made Fragile by Its Leaders
