Ching Kwan Lee
New Left Review 89, September-October 2014
After three decades of sustained growth China, an economic powerhouse of
continental proportions, is becoming choked by bottlenecks:
overcapacity, falling profits, surplus capital, shrinking demand in
traditional export markets and scarcity of raw materials. These
imbalances have driven Chinese firms and citizens overseas in search of
new opportunities, encouraged by Beijing’s ‘going out’ policy. Their
presence in Africa has drawn a vast amount of attention, despite the
fact that the prc only accounts for a
tiny fraction of foreign direct investment there—4 per cent for 2000–10,
compared to 84 per cent for the Atlantic powers. [1]
In the ensuing rhetorical battle, the Western media has created the
spectre of a ‘global China’ launching a new scramble for Africa, while
Beijing for its part claims simply to be encouraging South–South
cooperation, free of hegemonic aspirations or World Bank-style
conditions. These seemingly opposed positions, however, share the
implicit assumption that Chinese investment is qualitatively different
from conventional foreign investment. What, if any, is the peculiarity
of Chinese capital in Africa? What are the consequences of China’s
presence, and what prospects does it offer for African development?
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