China's recruitment of African university students: policy efficacy and unintended outcomes

Abstract

This article explores how Sino-African relations are affected by the growing number of Africans who pursue higher education in China. China actively recruits African university students in order to increase soft power and generate income from the export of education services. Semi-structured interviews with African university students suggest that China fails to reach these policy objectives because the students are disappointed with the quality of the education they receive. However, the students engage in trade and contribute to the fast-growing export of Chinese products to African markets, thereby reinforcing the ties between China and Africa in unintended ways.

Keywords:

• Africa
• China
• Sino-African relations
• soft power
• student mobility
• international trade

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Ian Taylor and Philip Giannecchini for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. Part of the fieldwork was funded by the Nordic Africa Institute.

Notes

1. Philip Giannecchini worked as a research assistant on this project, and conducted, recorded and transcribed 16 student interviews while based at a university in Zhejiang province.

2. The figure comprises a range of goods and services consumed by foreign students (cf. paragraphs 3.113 and 3.123 in United Nations Statistics Division's ‘Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services’ (UNSTATS 2010)).