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Volume 81 – No. 1

The Forest for the Trees: Trade, Investment and the China-in-Africa Discourse

Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong

DOI: 10.5509/20088119

  • English Abstract
  • French Abstract

 

Trade and investment are topics central to the China-in-Africa discourse that has strongly emerged from the West in the last few years. Western opinion leaders, along with several African opposition parties, often characterize China’s role in Africa as “colonialist,” “neo-imperialist” or “predatory.” Placing China’s trade and investment in the continent in comparative perspective, the paper assesses the empirical validity of such charges, by examining those issues that receive disproportionate attention in the discourse: China’s importation of oil from Africa, her exports of textiles and clothing to Africa and to the world in competition with Africa, as well as her ownership of a Zambian copper mine. It is concluded that China, as part of the world capitalist economy, injures African interests in many of the same ways as the principal Western states. The racialized China-in-Africa discourse, however, is largely inaccurate, reflective of Western elite perceptions of China as a strategic competitor, and acts as an obstacle to an effective critique of exploitative links between Africa and the more developed states.

La Forêt pour l’arbre: Les Investissements chinois et le discours sur la présence de la Chine en Afrique

Commerce et investissements sont des questions prédominantes dans le discours Chine-Afrique qui préoccupent fortement les pays occidentaux depuis plusieurs années. L’opinion des dirigeants occidentaux, aux côtés de plusieurs partis d’opposition africains, caractérisent souvent le rôle de la Chine en Afrique comme étant “colonialiste”, “néo-impérialiste” ou bien encore “prédateur”. En situant le commerce et les investissements chinois sur le continent dans une perspective analogue, ce papier ausculte la validité empirique de telles imputations. Il examine donc ces questions qui recueillent une attention démesurée au travers ce discours; à savoir, l’importation chinoise de pétrole provenant d’Afrique, ses exportations de textiles et de confection vers l’Afrique et à travers le monde, en concurrence avec l’Afrique, autant que son contrôle sur les mines de cuivre zambiennes. Il en est conclut que la Chine, en tant que partenaire de l’économie capitaliste mondiale, porte préjudice dans une certaine mesure aux intérêts de l’Afrique, comme le font les principaux pays occidentaux. Le discours racialisé sur les relations Chine-Afrique, qui est toutefois fortement inéxacte, reflète les vues de l’élite occidentale sur la Chine en tant que concurrente stratégique, et sert d’obstacle à une critique impartiale des liens d’exploitation entre l’Afrique et les pays plus développés.

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Last Revised: March 17, 2021
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