An international discourse of China-in-Africa has emerged, particularly in Western countries with dense links to Africa: the US, UK and France. While China\u2019s presence in Africa should be critically examined, interest in it in the West is skewed by elite perceptions of China as a rival for resources and influence in Africa and as a rising power, with the tone of the discourse far more negative than that accorded the Western presence in Africa.<\/p>\n
The discourse is partly about how China\u2019s presence is a \u201cbad influence\u201d on governance in Africa.1 A concomitant idea is that China\u2019s activities obstruct Africa\u2019s development, a contention that fits in a right to development framework.2 A New York Times editorial exemplifies how the discourse plays out in Western media; its title, \u201cPatron of African Misgovernment,\u201d refers to China.3 It states that if African countries put natural resources in hock to the PRC, China will write them big checks, without questions about corruption or authoritarianism. China is said to engage in \u201ccallous yuan diplomacy,\u201d enjoy \u201can ugly partnership\u201d with the \u201cgenocidal\u201d Sudan government, and have Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe as its \u201cfavorite,\u201d contributing to Zimbabweans\u2019 lack of free elections and \u201csane economic policies.\u201d The Times avers that China is pushing the poorest African workers deeper into poverty by flooding Africa with cheap goods and lending to African states without insisting on standards that Western states purportedly promote through the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The Times also expressed outrage at a PRC company\u2019s exploitation of Zambian miners.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the Japan Focus: An international discourse of China-in-Africa has emerged, particularly in Western countries with dense links to Africa: the US, UK and France. While China\u2019s presence in Africa should be critically examined, interest in it in the West is skewed by elite perceptions of China as a rival for resources and influence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[5922,3947],"class_list":["post-49450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-africa","tag-africa-aid","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong: Trade, Investment, Power and the China-in-Africa Discourse<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n