The current strong foothold of Chinese enterprises on the African continent concerns many Western observers. They fear that the West will lose leverage in Africa and simultaneously postpone development. Paradoxically, the advance of Chinese enterprises in Africa is not only the result of deliberate Chinese policies to gain access to resources and markets, but also the consequence of liberal African investment policies imposed by Western donors in the past. This article uses Zambia as a case study to challenge the often one-sided view of the local consequences of China's engagement with Africa, and it shows that we need to consider the type of policies that guide investment flows, in order to increase the local benefits of China's growing presence in the continent.

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Knocking on a Wide-open Door: Chinese Investments in Africa

China’s role in African development is much debated among academics as well as among private sector organisations, trade unions and politicians. Notwithstanding the recent upsurge of interest, the lion’s share of the current studies on ‘China in Africa’ is still based on a combination of aggregate figures and sporadic information from news agencies. Although much of the hysteria surrounding the ‘China in Africa’ debate has now evaporated — at least from the scholarly debate — the local debate is highly politicised and of a very dichotomous nature: China is either seen as benign or malign to African development efforts. This paper seeks to go beyond this dichotomous view by examining the multifaceted nature of Chinese investments in two sectors of the Zambian economy. It argues that these investments to a large extent resemble other foreign investments but the sheer size and growth of the investments trigger local reactions.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejdr.2009.23.pdf

Part of the Disease Or Part of the Cure? Chinese Investments in the Zambian Mining and Construction Sectors

The following paper examines the historical origins and development of China’s advocacy of the principle of noninterference in its African foreign policy and suggests that in spite of its consistent rhetorical support for noninterference over the last fifty years, the relevance of the principle in shaping Beijing’s foreign policy decisions has varied as its pragmatic interests have shifted. China’s post-Maoist leadership, in the drive to win the African resources and markets needed to bolster its growing, export-driven economy, has utilized the practice of noninterference to win a foothold on the continent. As its level of investment in Africa and dependency on African energy resources and markets have expanded, however, Beijing has found limiting its actions vis-a-vis a policy of noninterference less tenable, and as recurrences of regional instability and anti-Chinese populism have threatened its interests, citizens, and assets on the continent, will likely take a more forceful role in its relations with partner states.

Beyond the Rhetoric: Noninterference in China’s African Policy

In this article the authors conduct focused case studies on Zambia and Ghana to investigate the increasingly diverse popular reactions to Chinese engagement throughout the region of sub-Saharan Africa. In this effort they challenge the existing binary exploitation/opportunity paradigm through which growing Chinese engagement in sub-Saharan Africa is often analyzed. Instead, they propose an alternative framework, which centers less on the positive or nefarious nature of Chinese involvement and more on the institutional structures of African regimes. As opposed to closed autocracies and consolidated multiparty democracies, fluid transitional states create opportunities for the appearance of anti-Chinese populist movements akin to Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front in Zambia.

Charting the Roots of Anti-Chinese Populism in Africa: A Comparison of Zambia and Ghana:

The changes in both the scale and the visibility of China's dealings in Africa in the last decade have been astonishing. Trade, particularly in imports of natural resources to China and exports of Chinese merchandise to Africa, has grown exponentially since 2001. Lucrative deals have been signed with a range of African governments. A Chinese merchant presence in African cities and town is increasingly visible. And China now has a high diplomatic profile in Africa, not least as a guarantor and protector to important individual states such as Sudan. These quickly moving developments have occasioned a first wave of comment, excitement and reflection. Yet much of what has been published to date has been broad brush overview, policy analysis or opinion piece.1 Academic work based on primary research has been relatively scarce.

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Piet Konings

Papers

China and Africa in the era of neo-liberal globalisation