The explosion of Chinese engagement with Africa, both public and private, has garnered an increasing amount of attention in the media and now, in academia. In contrast to a few years ago, there is now a plethora of people working on the subject. If this means an expanded pool of academics conducting fieldwork and original research, this is a very good thing indeed and can add to our knowledge.

The book under review is part of Zed Book's ‘African Arguments’ series, a series of short pocketbooks aimed at the general reader and non-specialist. As such, it makes no claim to be innovative or contributing to original research. Indeed, the book is based solely on internet sources and what others have written previously. This limits the originality of the volume somewhat, though it is arguably not the fault of the author, given the nature of the series within which the book is published. The speed with which the book was put out, which obviously precluded research, is however a bit of a problem.

Indeed, going through the book, I got the impression that it was somewhat rushed, perhaps to beat potential competitors? Consequently, we have references to ‘Olusegen Obasanjo’ (p. 2), ‘Ujamaa’ (p. 17), and sentences such as ‘In countries as diverse as Nigeria, Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria … ’ (p. 49). These are of course typographical errors and can be ignored. However, the claim that Gabon is one of the five countries that recognizes Taiwan (p. 139) cannot be put down as a typo, since Gabon has not had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1974. Given that the book is about Chinese foreign policy in Africa, there is a surprising paucity in attempting to situate Beijing's diplomacy in its wider context. Indeed, the main work on Chinese foreign policy used is Robinson and Shambaugh's edited collection, which was published in 1994. Obviously, a lot has changed since then with regard to both the People's Republic and its international activities. Certainly, ‘China’ can no longer be thought of as a unitary actor. As the Chinese leadership has pursued its (uneven) economic liberalisation policies post-Mao, it has progressively become more complicated and difficult for central authorities to control or even be aware of the diverse activities that various Chinese corporations and individual merchants are engaged in overseas. Obviously, what the key oil and other energy-based companies are doing is probably under great supervision (but even here there is rivalry and competition between different companies, complicating a coherent approach to Africa); but the huge proliferation of small-scale traders operating in Africa, very often at an individual or family level and private in nature, means that managing this phenomenon is all but impossible for the Chinese state. Weak rule of law, endemic corruption, and the highly politicised nature of state organisations at every level of government means that the central leadership is in a perpetual struggle to keep up with an economy surging beyond its control, whether domestically or when this is projected overseas.

Chinese trade and its diplomacy with Africa has become, in many ways, ‘normalised’, i.e. diverse and involving multiple actors and individuals, rather than being, as previously, arguably under the direct control of central organs of the government. The concept of a ‘China Inc.’, complete with master plan, either at home or abroad, as some have cast it, is flawed. One of the blurbs on the back (by David Shambaugh) claims that the book is the ‘first substantive book on China-Africa relations in three decades’. This is curious, given that Shambaugh's edited book on Chinese foreign policy actually included a chapter by Philip Snow, who wrote a quite detailed volume on Sino-African ties in 1988, never mind Deborah Brautigam's excellent book (using fieldwork!) on Chinese aid to Africa in 1998. I wish authors and publishers would be more careful about what is written when selling a book, as even if this just a marketing ploy, it is actually quite insulting to scholars such as Snow and Brautigam. As the field in Sino-African relations develops, a new generation of academics is emerging that conducts research in the field. It is with these and others who conduct original research, and visit Africa and China to conduct studies, that our knowledge of the growing relationship between Africa and the Chinese will be developed. As interest in the subject develops, our insights grow and our analysis deepens. It is indeed an exciting period to be studying Sino-African relations.