China has surpassed the United States to become the largest source of development finance in Africa. China boasts a policy of non-interference in the national affairs of foreign countries, but their investment in African development requires stable political institutions to succeed. To overcome this conundrum, China is devoting significant resources to the growth of the African Union as this source of stability. I argue that China has become the primary driving force behind African integration through a strategy of top-down capacity-building and bottom-up economic integration. There is a clear gap between the ideals of South-South cooperation and the actual implementation of China's foreign direct investment; with China often failing to meet the standards they impose on themselves. However, these initiatives from China represent a major shift in development financing and the growth trajectory of Africa. China is slowly guiding the governance norms in Africa by operating on this supranational level.
This book investigates the expanding involvement of China in security cooperation in Africa. Drawing on leading and emerging scholars in the field, the volume uses a combination of analytical insights and case studies to unpack the complexity of security challenges confronting China and the continent. It interrogates how security considerations impact upon the growing economic and social links China has developed with African states.
This book examines China’s political, economic, and diplomatic engagement in Africa. The rapid increase of China’s economic and political involvement in Africa is the most momentous development on the continent of Africa since the beginning of the twenty-first century. China is now Africa’s largest trading partner and the largest infrastructure financier. Additionally, it is the fastest growing economy and source of foreign direct investment. This monograph seeks to understand the dynamics of the escalating Chinese investments in African economies and the political implications of this development for Africa. This work will interest scholars, students, academics, and policy makers on the fields of Chinese and African politics, development studies, and international political economy.
This book reviews the background and evolving features of Sino-African relations, exploring various stages over the past 50 years. Pursuing an objective and forward-looking approach, it analyzes the development, current issues and future direction of Sino-African relations, as well as their global impact. Despite ideological and policy differences, it also outlines potential avenues of cooperation between China and western countries in promoting development in Africa. Potential means of adapting and improving China’s “going into Africa” policy in the post-crisis era are also discussed, highlighting the importance of enhancing soft power in Africa.
"Although China denies that it harbors ambitions to become a superpower, its leadership has made clear its intention that the country be a major player in the global arena. Against this backdrop, Ian Taylor explores the nature and implications of China's burgeoning role in Africa. Taylor argues that Beijing is using Africa not only as a source of needed raw materials and potential new markets, but also to bolster its own position on the international stage. After tracing the history of Sino-African relations, he addresses key current issues: What will be the long-term consequences, for example, of China's successes in securing access to the continent's oil? How will cheap Chinese imports affect Africa's manufacturing base? What has been the impact of China's arms sales to Africa?"--P. 227.
In recent years, China and India have become the most important economic partners of Africa and their footprints are growing by leaps and bounds, transforming Africa's international relations in a dramatic way. Although the overall impact of China and India's engagement in Africa has been positive in the short-term, partly as a result of higher returns from commodity exports fuelled by excessive demands from both countries, little research exists on the actual impact of China and India's growing involvement on Africa's economic transformation. This book examines in detail the opportunities and challenges posed by the increasing presence of China and India in Africa, and proposes critical interventions that African governments must undertake in order to negotiate with China and India from a stronger and more informed platform.
Across economic, political, and security domains, the growth of China’s presence in Africa has been swift and staggering, which has fed both simplistic caricatures of China’s role on the continent and fears of renewed geopolitical competition. A closer look reveals a more balanced picture. This report examines how China’s growing engagement affects the United States’ role in Africa and offers policy recommendations for U.S. military leaders.
Monograph examining the role of China foreign policy in Africa from 1958 to 1971 - traces the evolution of Chinese diplomacy, discusses conflicts with the USA and the USSR, considers China's attitude towards international relations, describes economic aid and trade programmes, and analyses Chinese political ideology and the efforts undertaken to encourage revolutionary social change, etc. Bibliography pp. 287 to 291, references and statistical tables.
Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1,7, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: China and India -Two new global players, language: English, abstract: The third China-Africa Cooperation Forum held in Beijing between the 3rd and 5th November 2006 revealed the growing influence that China is becoming in Africa since a few years. This summit was announced by Chinese officials as being the most important diplomatic event ever organized in the country since 1949. The size of the African participation -48 African countries took part- was telling: Africa’s leaders recognise that China is a now a hugely important economic and political player on their continent. Actually, China has had a long involvement with Africa, going back to the early days of independence movements in the 1960s and before. But the current level and intent of China’s involvement is different. In those earlier days, China’s engagement with Africa was politically driven: personnel, technical assistance and weapons were sent to the continent to support newly independent countries and liberation movements. Besides, during the cold war, African leaders perceived China as a leading nation of the Third World, and Maoism was sometimes used as ideological reference, while China had geopolitical interests in the continent, namely to counter its biggest ideological rival, the Soviet Union, in countries such as Angola and Congo. But in the 1980s, China’s influence and involvement in the African continent waned. China was unable to compete with western aid programs, and Africa had lost its strategic importance for Chinese officials. However, this situation dramatically changed in the last decade. China's policy towards Africa during this period has its roots in the crisis surrounding the Tiananmen massacre and the persistent Western criticism of China’s human rights record. These events indeed provided the initial trigger which compelled the Chinese government to seek closer ties to non-Western countries, and especially with Africa. In addition, the emergence of the international hegemony of the United States in the post-1989 period led China to steer a more active foreign policy. As a consequence, Chinese officials advanced the concept of multipolarity, and reached out to non-Western states to bolster China’s international position vis-à-vis the United States and particularly its room for manoeuvre within the United Nations and other international bodies. Furthermore, since China’s economic boom and its growing thirst for raw materials, the commercial perspectives represented by the African continent and its potential in energetic resources are also in the heart of the new Chinese strategy in Africa. However, China’s growing influence in Africa has raised a range of interrogations about its objectives and methods. A crucial question I will try to answer is whether China’s growing involvement in Africa is a positive or a negative shift for the region. Will it help or hinder the development prospects of the continent? To answer that question, I will first review the scale of China’s political and economic involvement in Africa and examine the objectives and strategies underlying Chinese foreign policy towards Africa. Then I will look at the impact that China’s engagement has or may have in a near future on African countries by considering its economic and political repercussions.
