In recent years, with the ever-growing presence and activism of China in Africa, Western academic and nonacademic studies abound. One central question concerns the motives and record of China's African initiatives and operations and the impact to date of China's drive for the interests of Africa and the traditional Western powers.
The New Presence of China in Africa is a welcome addition to the growing debate on the subject. Editor Meine Pieter van Dijk, professor of water services management at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, authored or coauthored six of the ten chapters; other authors include Anders Bastholm, Filip de Beule, Daniel Van den Bulcke, Jean-Rephaël Chaponnière, Peter Kragelund, and Peter Knorringa. The volume brings together essays by theorists and practitioners, area and non-area specialists, from Western Europe to investigate the riddle of China's role in Africa.
Throughout the study, China's behavior and role in Africa are measured against a series of Western “models” and “theories.” These include, but are not limited to, the “Beijing consensus” (the minimal political and social conditions that China imposes on relationships with African states) versus the “Washington consensus” (Western political and social “conditionality” for providing assistance), the “new donor” (China) versus the “traditional donors” (Europe and America), the “responsible production” model (corporate social responsibility and fair trade activities), and others. Absent is a serious attempt to examine evolving Chinese “practices” and “models,” including aid and economic development.
Africa is an especially fitting region to investigate the question of China's global behavior and role. Modern Chinese–African relations have a history of sixty years, with increasing extensity and intensity during the past thirty years, since the introduction of China's “reform and opening” policy in the late 1970s. Furthermore, China's African policy has been focused on achieving most, if not all, of China's primary domestic and foreign policy objectives. Finally, China's relationship with Africa is a work in progress; future successful relations with Africa depend as much on the “new” actor China's correct policies and pragmatic practices as on Africa's needs and responses. Also significant are the influences of the African policies—past, present and future—of the traditional actors, Europe and the United States.
The complexities and global and regional contexts of China's African policy and the background and biases that one brings to the subject matter make any consideration of China's presence in Africa a challenge, a threat, and/or an opportunity. The New Presence of China in Africa covers both ends of the spectrum and the middle, with a focus on China's aid, investment, and trade. The volume is divided into four parts: “Overview,” “Instruments,” “Case Studies,” and “Conclusions.” The chapters provide useful discussions and data. Especially rewarding are the chapters written by a practitioner of foreign aid and another based on field work in Africa. Chaponnière (chapter 3, “Chinese Aid to Africa”), an economist in the Asian Department of the Agence Française de Développement who has also served abroad for the French Ministry of Finance, provides an insightful practitioner's examination of China's aid to Africa, including an account of Chinese aid institutions and instruments. He correctly foresees a much-needed change in the administration of China's official development aid, given its rising commitments and need to coordinate the ever-growing number of institutions involved. Chaponnière also foresees a gradual convergence of Chinese and Western African agendas, political, economic, developmental, and otherwise. China, for example, is already participating at the local levels in donor roundtables. Future dialogue and cooperation among all parties—Africa, China, and the traditional Western powers—will soon become a necessity.
Bastholm and Kragelund's essay on Chinese economic activities in Zambia (chapter 6) is an example of academic studies based on field research. The authors seek “to understand why and how Chinese companies invest in Zambia” (p. 118). One key factor contributing to the success of China's investment is “mutual benefit”; taking the mining (copper) sector as an example, China secures copper for domestic developmental needs while Zambia gains investment, revenue, and overall economic development. A similar situation exists in the agriculture and construction sectors; Chinese farms in Zambia currently supply local markets and could provide for China's future domestic needs, and Chinese construction firms erect buildings and maintain Zambian infrastructure while providing work and profits for Chinese companies. However, the authors found that, while Chinese construction firms were self-supporting, through profits have declined; some agricultural companies in Zambia depended on Chinese government funding.
Overall, this is a useful addition to the literature on China's African policy, though premature in its concluding projections. As Van Dijk wrote at the height of the global economic recession in 2008, “we see signs that China is retreating from Africa, but we do not know how long this will last” (p. 218). He has no doubt since noted that China had already redoubled its African initiative and presence by 2010.
