China Returns to Africa: A Rising Power and a Continent Embrace

• Published in: Journal of African history Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 461 - 462
• Main Authors: ASCHE, HELMUT, Alden; Large; Soares de Oliveira, Chris; Daniel; Ricardo
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Africa; African studies; Alden, Christopher; China; Chinese; Chinese studies; Field study; Industrial policy; International political economy; International relations; Neocolonialism; Politics; Angola; Cape Verde Islands; United States > US; Sudan; Africa; Tanzania; Mauritius; Liberia; Gabon; Namibia; China; South Africa; Zimbabwe; Nigeria; France
• ISBN: 9781850658856; 1850658854
• ISSN: 0021-8537; 1469-5138
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021853709990739

Castigating this strategy in oil, gas, and minerals as immature, as US analysts tend to do, ignores the highly political and speculative nature of world commodity markets, from which China tries to shield itself by its Africa engagement. [...]contributors to this volume cannot yet fully answer the core question of how much of China in Africa is part of what the editors acknowledge as centrally planned 'industrial policy' (obvious in the mega-deals) and how much is the result of independent vectors of myriads of Chinese (and African) actors. Four pieces by Stephen Chan, Chris Alden, Christopher Clapham, and Daniel Large conclude, refuting the view of Chinese imperialism replacing the Western one in Africa, insisting on a multipolar geopolitical outcome (a bit awkwardly resumed in Alden's 'Africa without Europeans'), and urging the need for more research, in order to present an accurate picture of the multiple actors involved and the ambiguous, yet on the whole positive, fallout of the blossoming China-Africa relations.