China-Africa relations and public diplomacy

The Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Duke University, hosted a conference in mid-August on China-Africa relations and public diplomacy.

Although much has been written in the past five years on China-Africa relations, this is an important topic that has been neglected.

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and China’s ZTE Corporation provided financial assistance. There was significant official and academic participation from China. All of the speakers on the African side appear to be from the academic community.

It would have been useful, at a minimum, to have a spokesperson from the African Union. Nevertheless, it is to the credit of Stellenbosch University that it undertook this initiative. You can find a summary of the proceedings here (PDF).

Meryl Burgess, Kgothatso Moloi-Siga and Matthew McDonald of the Centre for Chinese Studies prepared a brief analysis of the conference for the August 2011 issue of The China Monitor. You can read it on pages 12-14 here (PDF).