Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022. x, 392 pp. (Tables, graphs, figures). US$85.00, cloth. ISBN 9781503630093.
In her book, China’s Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order, Dawn Murphy covers the full scope of China’s contemporary relations with countries in both Africa and the Middle East. The book, which is predicated largely on hard-done fieldwork and research, asks important questions, and proposes a novel theoretical construct to explain and interpret China’s policies in the Global South and its global rise more broadly. Its larger and much more ambitious objective, however, is to examine each aspect of China’s economic, political, and security policies in the two regions to determine the extent to which they converge/diverge with liberal values, as well as whether they are cooperative/competitive with the United States. China’s policies and statements toward African and Middle Eastern countries are taken as indicative of its strategy throughout the Global South.
After an exhaustive review, Murphy concludes that although China does not seek to change the international distribution of territory in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, as its power grows, it is increasingly competing with the United States, building a sphere of influence in the Global South, and challenging the rules of the international system.
The book’s strength lies in its extensive field research, elite interviews conducted in China before the COVID-19 pandemic (at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other venues), and its compilation and presentation of underutilized data, which provides important insights into how Chinese officials view their country’s policies in Africa and the Middle East and role on the world stage.
The extent of the data provided represents an impressive and valuable resource that will make it a useful reference even for scholars with a more advanced understanding of China’s foreign relations. One example of the primary sources used in the book is the work on China’s special envoys for the Middle East, Africa, and Syria, which includes speeches by the special envoys; press releases from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Chinese, Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African media reporting; scholarly analysis from China, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa; and interviews with numerous government officials and scholars. The research on China’s special economic zones and the comparison of US and Chinese voting behaviour at the UN are also innovative and useful.
Of course, covering the full breadth of China’s engagements throughout Africa and the Middle East and generalizing its behaviour across dozens of diverse countries is not an easy task. Indeed, while the book offers an abundance of information, quotations, and data on a diverse array of topics—from trade and investment, to anti-piracy and military deployments—it sometimes lacks sufficient connective analysis to convincingly apply its theoretical construct evenly across so many issue areas and distinct countries. For instance, the need to distinguish between “divergent” and “convergent” policies across so many areas means the author sometimes relies on official statements and takes Beijing’s declared principles at face value rather than interrogating their instrumental application in the wider context. It is also unclear why some topics were selected for inclusion while others were left out. In short, the sheer ambition of Murphy’s wide-ranging theory-based regional comparison, while admirable, sometimes seems to inhibit her ability to provide the requisite level of granularity on some topics, while others (e.g., United Front work, propaganda work, and party-to-party relations) receive little or no attention.
Of course, all authors must choose what to cover and what not to include. In this case, however, the arbitrariness seems to stem from the research design which combines binary frameworks (i.e., liberalism vs. Westphalian; convergent vs. divergent; competitive vs. cooperative) with ill-defined causal variables. In one incidence, China’s state-owned companies are labelled as engaging in norm-“divergent” behavior, while at the same time the Chinese government (which controls those companies) is said to be engaging in trade agreements that are labelled “convergent.” Suppositions of this ilk leave the reader wondering to what extent combining binary categories with a subjective evaluation of China’s behaviour in two diverse regions across numerous complex and overlapping areas can shed light on Beijing’s intentions.
In sum, China’s Rise in the Global South is a solid contribution to the academic literature on China’s engagement with Africa and the Middle East. The book’s clear sign-posting in the text and use of subheadings make it accessible to audiences from casual observers to experts. It provides a valuable comparison of China’s policies and intentions towards two important regions, and correctly identifies competition with Washington as the main driver of Beijing’s approach toward the Global South more broadly. Finally, the breadth of Murphy’s work and its attention to politics and security offered this reader much welcome respite from the never-ending flow of ever-narrower (and duller) studies on economic topics in Sino-African relations.
Joshua Eisenman
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame