Sino-African Relations: Some Solutions and Strategies to the Policy Syndromes

Abstract

We survey about 110 recently published studies on Sino-African relations, and put some structure on the documented issues before suggesting some solutions and strategies to the identified policy syndromes. The documented issues are classified into the following eight main strands: China targeting nations with abundant natural resources, focusing on countries with bad governance, not hiring local workers; outbidding other countries by flouting environmental and social standards; importing workers that do not integrate into domestic society and living in extremely simple conditions, exhibiting low linkages between her operations and local businesses, exporting low quality products to Africa, and the emergence of China hindering Africa’s development. We sum up the discussion by reconciling the Beijing and Washington Consensuses.

KeyWords:

• Africa
• China
• foreign policy
• socioeconomic relations

Acknowledgements

The authors are highly indebted to the editor and reviewers for the constructive comments.

Notes

1. China’s foreign policy has both positive and negative effects on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). While it is consistent with the NEPAD’s view of African ownership and sovereignty, it also favors autocracy which is not in line with the NEPAD’s perspective of democracy (Asongu et al., 2014).

2. Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States.