Michel and Beuret's swash-buckling description of their adventures across the African continent offers a readily accessible story of contemporary developments in China–Africa relations. Previous literature on the topic ranges widely from rather sensational journalistic pieces to largely academic efforts at further understanding the phenomenon. This volume appears to be an attempt to strike a middle ground. Both respected journalists, the authors have spent an impressive amount of time in the field in preparation of this account.
The book's irreverent tone renounces any pretensions at scientific investigation, and yet the numerous in-depth interviews hold a wealth of qualitative data with rich descriptive content. On a field where hard data is notoriously thin on the ground, anecdotal evidence gains more traction than it might. Indeed, reading about the process through which the pair encountered their interviewees is as enlightening as the interviews themselves, an aspect often lost in other such texts.
The chapters hold a strong element of human interest. What comes to light powerfully is the importance of individual ambition in Chinese private commercial engagement of African markets. The personalities of several figures loom large, most of them successful Chinese entrepreneurs in several of the African countries visited, such as Jacob Wood in Nigeria (p. 30) and Zhang Ke Qian in Congo-Brazzaville (p. 47). It also serves to emphasize the fact that personal relations and networks are central in the dynamics of Chinese relations with African countries.
Without focusing too much on this aspect directly, Michel and Beuret's encounters clearly illustrate the different types of Chinese actors in Africa, ranging from the large state-owned companies that come to Africa to undertake large-scale contracts, to the smaller actors who come relatively independently in order to seek their fortune. They also reveal a wide variety of opinions that Africans and Chinese have of each other, a discourse that could be further explored.
The book does not avoid clichés completely. The authors describe a scene where they interview an Angolan women who says of the Chinese: “They were here for three months, but then they ate their dogs and left” (p. 222). An almost identical quotation from an Angolan guard appeared in a Newsweek article by Scott Johnson (“China's African misadventures,” 24 November 2007) published at a similar time, suggesting either a wide-spread belief among Angolans that all Chinese rear and eat dogs, or a spot of artistic license on the part of the authors.
A strength of the book is the authors' effort to contextualize China's relations with each of the African countries under discussion. The journalists' experiences are used to highlight events and key debates which are woven into to the text. They revisit the history and accompanying mythology of China–Africa relations such as the story of Zheng He (p. 62) which has recently been lifted out of obscurity.
Importantly, the authors include two chapters on assignments done in China, and in a third render commentary on Washington's China–Africa relations. Of note is the fact that “such benevolent, almost indulgent attitudes” (p. 186) as expressed by America's political capital are not echoed in their American embassies. Indeed, the recent spate of WikiLeaks regarding US diplomats' reports on Chinese activities in Africa confirm a rather more suspicious outlook. Despite (or perhaps because of) the authors' nationality, France is not spared as the claims of China's neo-colonialism are compared against the notion of ‘Francafrique’ (the original French version is called “la Chinafrique”). Views from all quarters are treated with the same measure of scepticism.
In the last chapter, the authors allude to a “growing dissatisfaction with the Chinese among Africans (and of African unpredictability)” (p. 256). While social activism is arguably not as vibrant in Africa as in South America, it is certainly stronger than China's domestic equivalent. Although Africa does not speak with a single voice, Beijing has needed to recalibrate its position on certain issues, and at times distance itself from other Chinese actors (p. 228).
This book is not an academic one and did not, I believe, aspire to be one. It is, however, a highly readable introduction to a complex set of relations.
