Accumulation with or without dispossession? A ‘both/and’ approach to China in Africa with reference to Angola

Abstract

In the burgeoning field of research on China in Africa, analyses generally fall on a continuum between two divergent positions. With reference to Angola, this paper reviews perspectives on China in Africa as well as the main features of Chinese engagement with the continent in order to interrogate the ‘divide’ between the ‘China threat’ and ‘peaceful rise’ positions. The goal is not to take a centrist position, but rather to suggest that China represents for Africa both a new imperialism and a new model of development. While differentiating between the new Euro-American and Chinese imperialisms, China's new engagement, exemplified by its relationship with Angola, is a project of recolonisation and appropriation of economic surplus. The Chinese variety of imperialism, however, offers African states a compromise to their elite and to their citizens that has heretofore been missing from post-colonial Euro-American imperialism – the prospect of sustained economic growth and improvement to the quality of everyday life.

[Accumulation avec ou sans dépossession? Une approche « à la fois/et » à la Chine en Afrique, avec comme exemple l'Angola.] Dans le domaine de la recherche en plein essor sur la Chine en Afrique, les analyses se situent généralement sur un continuum entre deux positions divergentes. En prenant comme exemple l'Angola, cet article examine les perspectives de la Chine en Afrique ainsi que les principales caractéristiques de l'engagement chinois envers le continent afin de questionner le fossé entre les positions craignant la « menace chinoise » et celle croyant en « la montée en puissance pacifique » du pays. L'objectif n'est pas d'adopter une position centriste, mais plutôt de suggérer que la Chine représente pour l'Afrique à la fois un nouvel impérialisme et un nouveau modèle de développement. Alors qu'il se différencie des nouveaux impérialismes euro-américains et chinois, le nouvel engagement de la Chine, illustré par sa relation avec l'Angola, est un projet de recolonisation et d'appropriation de l'excédent économique. La grande variété de l'impérialisme chinois offre cependant un compromis, à l’élite et aux citoyens des États africains, qui était précédemment absent de l'impérialisme postcolonial euro-américain – la perspective d'une croissance économique durable et de l'amélioration de la qualité de la vie de tous les jours.

Mots-clés : Chine Angola; pétrole; accumulation; nouvel impérialisme

Keywords:

• China
• Angola
• oil
• accumulation
• new imperialism

Notes

For more on FOCAC, see Taylor (2011).

Calculations citing this source are the author's own based on UNCTAD's ITC Trade Map web site.

For more on Chinese financing in Angola, see Corkin (2001), Alves (2010), Human Rights Watch (2010), Vines et al. (2009), Global Witness (2009), and Campos and Vines (2008).

Calculated using statistics on total Chinese imports of crude oil from the US Energy Information Administration (http://www.eia.gov/).

The ‘both/and’ conceptual stance is a theoretical import from feminist ontology and theories of oppression, which rejects ‘either/or’ dichotomies of ‘Eurocentric masculinist thought’. For more on this, see Collins (2000).

Interview in Luanda, July 2010.

Interview in Luanda, May 2010.

Interview in Cabinda, August 2010.

Several reports on the first two phases of the projects can be found at http://www.minfin.gv.ao/docs/dspProjGov.htm. A list of concluded projects can be found at http://www.minfin.gv.ao/docs/dspprogGovcompletos.htm.

Interview in Luanda, July 2010.

For more on China's early efforts to enter Angola's oil sector, see Corkin (2011).

Interview in Luanda, June 2010.

Interview in Luanda, June 2010.

Interview in Luanda, June 2010.

Interviews, June–August 2010.

Brautigam's (2009) book focuses more on the ‘flying geese’ production cycle (Chapter 7) and China's potential as an industrial catalyst, particularly in key sectors (Chapter 8), without much mention of the ‘hidden dragon’ concern raised in earlier work.