The study of China's relations with Africa has become a growing phenomenon in recent years and an increasing number of books on this topic have, with varying success, attempted to capture its nuances.
It is perhaps unfair to compare one book with others published a year or two years later. This is especially the case when discussing China's relations with African countries, given not only their controversial nature but also the speed with which they are progressing. Chris Alden's book seeks to provide a broad overview of the dynamics of China–Africa relations. The author identifies three strands of debate, describing China's role variously as “partner, competitor or coloniser” (p. 5). In order to interrogate these characterizations, Alden examines China's various “instruments” in its outreach towards Africa, the African response to them and, inevitably, the Western reaction.
Recognition of the triangular context of China–Africa relations is an important analytical tool and one that is often not taken into consideration. The internationalization of China's strengthening relations with African countries, whether intended or not, precludes both sets of actors from operating in a vacuum, even in a theoretical sense. Sino-African relations are a signal of China's increasing integration into the international system and are illustrative of the country's increasing global presence. Implicit here is a warning to place events in their proper perspective and engage in more sober analysis.
However, on occasion the arguments pursued in China in Africa lack structure and coherence. While the content itself is well written and interesting, at times it fails to rally around a central point, losing the thread of the debate in the process. There could be an argument for the book to have been based on more extensive fieldwork. The sources drawn on are largely secondary, and given the contemporary and evolving nature of the phenomenon under study, primary data becomes important. Nevertheless, to address this, the author draws on various niche fieldwork studies as well as an understanding of the subject matter that has been developed by immersion in the topic for a number of years.
Given the restricted space, many of the developing nuances, are only briefly mentioned, for example instances of “racism” between Africans and Chinese (p. 54) and Chinese companies' challenges with corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the face of African civil society (p. 56). These are areas begging for further research.
The book works well as a succinct synopsis of the debate “thus far,” and is ideal for readers attempting grasp such issues, although many of the statistics on joint projects undertaken are now outdated. It is clear that Alden intended only to describe the relationship in broad strokes; scholars who have been following the debates surrounding China–Africa relations for some time will not find much new here.
Sarah Raine's book is an attempt at a more expansive overview of China's relations with Africa, and she takes up some of the developing themes suggested by Alden two years earlier. Her account in some places follows a well-trodden path, particularly in terms of her outline of historical relations and her choice of case studies. Interestingly, she points out that while Chinese interests in Africa pale in comparison to those of the collective West, the fundamentally strategic nature of trade in particular renders Africa far more important to China than numbers alone would suggest. This is also true of the impact of such engagement, both in a positive and a negative sense (p. 53). The author also sets out the complex web of Chinese state organs involved in African engagement, underlining the difference between the theory of flow of command and the messy reality. Of real interest is a section in which she systematically interrogates six often-heard “charges” against the various Chinese commercial actors in Africa. Given the uncommonly large dose of bias with which many such accounts are written, it is refreshing to see such analyses being conducted. Raine herself acknowledges: “Such contextual points are important for ensuring that any debate on China in Africa remains grounded in reality and avoids hyperbole or paranoia. Exaggeration and simplification are too often present in Western media treatments of the subject” (p. 97).
What does emerge through the book is the author's painful self-awareness of being a Westerner (albeit that she is not alone) commenting on growing ties between two non-Western blocs. Her sensitivity to this, however, does not preclude her from conveying a message that Western powers have a responsibility to become involved in order to influence the outcome of such political developments, presumably for the greater good. Given the skewed architecture of international relations and the suspicion which remains when faced with even well-meaning Western intervention, it is unlikely that either China or African countries would take kindly to such overtures.
Ian Taylor's latest volume on China–Africa relations is interesting in that it tackles some of the more sensitive areas of these relations such as “cheap Chinese goods” (p. 63), human rights and the arms trade. This is a bold step, although it is clear that the author holds a much more moderate stance on China's relations with Africa than that expounded in his earlier work. A strength of the book is the extensive fieldwork conducted in a long list of countries, as well as the successful treatment of themes that have transcended the country case-study approach. Furthermore, the author does not shy away from attempting to explain the growing complexities of the issues he has chosen to explore. Importantly, the less heard Chinese perspective on human rights is explored (p. 92) and shown to be linked to much larger policy considerations of containment by the West (p. 109). What comes to the fore throughout is that China's relations with Africa are a product of domestic power struggles amongst China's various political structures in transition. This debunks the concept of an overarching and meticulously planned “grand strategy” emanating from Beijing, which is hinted at in much other literature on this subject (p. 161).
From a theoretical perspective, the author goes head to head with what are clearly some beefs he has about the previous literature on China–Africa. In posing the question “Which China?” he maintains: “It is commonplace in the literature on Sino-African ties thus far to refer to “China.” Although the label may make sense heuristically, it potentially obfuscates which processes are unfolding and why” (p. 3).
This is important. One of the common shortcomings of many early analyses is that, in their eagerness to uncover broad trends and patterns in the development of China–Africa relations, researchers treat both “China” and “Africa” as singular units. This plays well to the incorporation of conceptualizing “China as the biggest developing country and Africa the biggest group of developing countries” as characterized by Chinese President Hu Jintao, but it masks the diverse regional contexts found within both China and Africa.
In China Returns to Africa, editors Chris Alden, Daniel Large and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira also make a determined effort to steer clear of expansive and general analyses, show-casing in-depth niche studies as evident in Jørgen Carling and Heidi Østbø Haugen's and Elizabeth Hsu's contributions to the collection. Much of the previous literature on China–Africa failed to distinguish between the growing numbers of Chinese actors on the African continent. There is an increasing recognition that despite the emphasis on government-to-government relations, central state actors no longer hold the absolute monopoly on such interactions, although I would perhaps not go as far as Ian Taylor in saying they had “normalized” (China's New Role in Africa p. 179).
Africa, for its part, can only be treated as a unit at a very superficial level in the context of relations with China: that of political rhetoric. In practice, each country has its own political priorities and strategic drivers with regards to relations with Beijing that are very seldom in concert. Adama Gaye's chapter in China Returns to Africa notes that Africans themselves within a single country, never mind on a continental level, do not agree about what increasing interaction with Chinese nationals will mean for them (pp. 132). This concurs with Alden's analysis in China in Africa of African countries' policy responses to China as “uncoordinated and ad hoc” (p. 76).
China Returns to Africa is an impressive collection of some of the leading lights of China–Africa relations. It is a great pity that the book took three years to be published following the conference at which the papers were originally presented. Nevertheless, the tightened focus of the contributions does much to further academic thinking in this area, as previous work was more generalist and descriptive. Some of the strongest contributions explore the increasing importance of dynamics occurring outside of official government contact, corroborate Alden's assertion that “the relationship will increasingly be determined not by government declarations and deal-making between elites but rather through the experiences of individual Chinese and Africans in all walks of life” (China in Africa, p. 6). Others important contributions succeed in emphasizing the increasing complexity of relations that are elsewhere superficially regarded as mere commodities transactions. Daniel Large's (pp. 295–318) treatment of Sino-Sudanese relations explores the evolution of Beijing's diplomatic overtures to Khartoum as China becomes increasingly embroiled in Sudan's domestic political issues. China's role has not only internationalized the conflict but is indicative of China's initial tendency to underestimate the ramifications of its engagement in Sudan in particular and Africa as a whole.
For scholars of China–Africa relations, the concluding chapters are undoubtedly the most useful. These provide an overview of issues that are arising as the discourse matures. Refreshingly, the volume does not attempt to offer concrete answers as to the ultimate impact of China's growing influence on African countries' political and economic landscapes. Indeed, several differing opinions are put forward on such issues. Alden offers a conclusion that extends further than most would venture, suggesting that we are seeing the prelude to an “Africa without Europeans” (p. 358). Christopher Clapham, on the other hand, expresses doubt that much if anything will change for Africa despite an extraordinary intensification of relations with China, as the latter's overtures to African countries lack both a “project of transformation” and the depth of a mutual cultural frame of reference (p. 367).
This raises the thesis proposed by Clapham (p. 366) that China will merely become the next in a long line of actors to be channelled by African elites for their own political agendas. China, for its part, is facing increasing tensions as a result of the pursuit of its foreign policy in Africa while simultaneously attempting to assume the mantle of a “responsible” global stakeholder. This is an excellent read for scholars seeking a more nuanced set of perspectives regarding the nature of “China–Africa” relations.
Although all four of these books view Sino-African relations through the lens of political science, it should not be restricted to this field. In China Returns to Africa, Stephen Chan describes much of the previous literature on this subject thus: “Africanists who are not Sinologists and Sinologists who are not Africanists, and political scientists who are neither, stray as amateurs into fields other than their own” (pp. 340). This may be true, but the study of this phenomenon is by its very nature inter-disciplinary. Increasingly, developmental economists, anthropologists and others are finding it a subject matter worthy of their attention. By and large, they would do well to have all four of these books on hand as reference.
