New Africa-China Center in Ghana

 Based in Accra, Ghana, the Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations launched this month.  Its purpose is to assess China-Africa relations from an African perspective, moving away from the current trend of being scrutinized predominantly by Western scholars.  

The Maghreb Review Special Issue on China-Africa

The Maghreb Review, vol. 39, issue 1, 2013, is a special issue on China's policy towards the Maghreb, the Middle East and Africa.  It contains the following articles:
--"The Position of the Maghreb in Traditional Chinese Geographic Knowledge about the Islamic Middle East" by Hyunhee Park.
--"The Chinese Policy towards Sudan and South Sudan: Drivers, Changes and Outcomes" by Nevine El-Husseiny.
--"Trends and Prospects of Economic Cooperation between China and Africa" by Sergey F. Sutyrin and Vladimir N. Kovalenko.

The articles are available by subscription only. 

New China-Africa Website

The Africa Daily is an online communications platform that provides up-to-date journalistic and academic information on China-Africa relations. The website also facilitates cultural and informational exchange among the diaspora communities in major Chinese and African cities. The Africa Daily is part of The Jewel Media Group, which provides research and consultative services to individuals and business organizations. It is based in Arlington, Virginia. 

China-Africa Relations

Historian Ousman Murzik Kobo, writing in the May 2013 issue of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective discusses the China-Africa relationship in a piece titled "A New World Order? Africa and China."

China, Africa and Social Media

Veteran journalist Eric Olander moderated a one hour twelve minute radio program on 14 April 2013 titled "China-Africa Relations in the Age of Social Media."  The participants were Cobus van Staden, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Johannesburg, Yu-Shan Wu, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, and Jinghao Lu, analyst on the China-Africa desk of Frontier Advisory.

While the focus of the discussion was on the impact of social media on China-Africa relations, the wide ranging discussion covered a variety of other issues including Chinese investment in Africa, Zambia as a food source for China, the importance to Chinese of business trust, Chinese tourism in Africa, role of the press, African attitudes towards Chinese, racism and neo-colonialism.

VOA Chinese-language Video Clips on China-Africa

The Voice of America ran during the first half of April 2013 three Chinese-language video clips of nine to ten minutes each about China-Africa-US relations.  Each one contains some of my comments with a voice over in Chinese. 

Click here, here and here to access each video program.

He Wenping Interview on China-Africa Relations

I recently ran across a particularly informative interview given 30 January 2013 by He Wenping, director of African Studies at the China Academy of Social Sciences, to Tendai Musakwa of the ChinaAfrica Project.

She covers membership in the China African Studies Association, China's position on African peacekeeping operations, France's military intervention in Mali, China's administration of foreign aid, environmental issues, corporate social responsibility (CSR), China's media presence in Africa and Africans living in Guangzhou.  

China-Africa Think Tanks Forum

The China-Africa Think Tank Forum (CATTF) has published the results of its 2nd meeting that took place in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, on 12-13 October 2012.

Although the 191 page document contains a fair amount of fluff, beginning on page 49 it contains the summaries of 50 presentations by African, Chinese and European scholars.  The papers cover an enormous variety of topics.  They are heavy on security issues.  The Horn of Africa (especially Sudan and Ethiopia), North Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia are well represented in the papers.

   

Website for China Africa News

A website called China Africa News provides an ongoing compendium of news about China's interaction with Africa.  Most of the accounts are from journalistic sources. 

Ian Taylor on China-Africa Relations

Ian Taylor/IDSA

China-Africa expert Ian Taylor, St. Andrews University, spoke on 8 January 2013 at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.  Click here for a summary of his remarks, which touched on a wide range of China-Africa issues.

China's New Leaders and Africa

The Brookings Institution published a brief analysis in January 2013 titled "China's New Leadership and Sino-Africa Relations."  The authors are all associated with the Africa Growth Initiative: Yun Sun, visiting fellow; Julius Agbor, Africa research fellow; and Jessica Smith, research assistant.

The analysis concludes it is highly unlikely that China's new leadership will pursue any major policy change toward Africa.

New Challenges for China-Africa Ties

Oxford Analytica published on 21 January 2013 an analysis titled "New Challenges Arise as China-Africa Ties Deepen." 

It argued that attention is shifting from alleged East-West ideological competition to the practical challenges and opportunities Africa faces in engaging at multiple levels with a major "new" partner.  Although state-to-state ties remain the most important, the activities of Chinese and African provincial and local governments, private firms, and other non-state actors including the Chinese media are gaining in salience.

Carter Center Website on China-Africa

The Carter Center maintains a website called "Sino-Africa" devoted to China-Africa relations in English and Chinese.  Click here to access the home page of the English version and here to access the version in Chinese.

China in Africa: Great Decisions

The Foreign Policy Association in New York asked me to write the "China in Africa" contribution for the 2013 edition of Great Decisions, an annual publication that is designed to stimulate debate on key current issues.  In addition to China in Africa, the 2013 edition contains essays on the future of the Euro, Egypt, NATO, Myanmar, Iran, Intervention and Threat Assessment.  The publication is available for sale for $20.  Click here for information on  ordering.

Commentary in China Daily

The government-controlled China Daily asked me to comment on the sate of China-Africa relations.  The editors accepted my contribution and published it on 11 January 2013 with one deletion and added their own title of "A Developing Tale of Success".  The deletion concerned my assertion that Chinese traders in Africa are facing increasing criticism from their African counterparts. 

Our China-Africa Book Praised

Nicolas van de Walle, professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University and book reviewer on Africa for Foreign Affairs magazine, included China and Africa: A Century of Engagement by Joshua Eisenman and me as one of the top three book picks for 2012.

Click here to read van de Walle's comments on our book and his two other selections for 2012. 

China Daily Commentary on China-Africa

China Daily (Africa edition) ran an article titled "Mutual Benefit" about China-Africa relations on 21 December 2012 by Andrew Moody and Zhong Nan. A government-financed paper, it is not surprising that the China Daily article emphasizes the positive aspects of the China-Africa relationship.

It contains my reaction to a statement made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more than a year ago that equated China's actions in Africa to those of neo-colonialism. I urged that the United States and China identify issues in Africa where the two countries could cooperate.

China-Africa-US Textile Relations

The Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford published in August 2012 a study titled "The Rise and Fall of (Chinese) African Apparel Exports." Written by Lorenzo Rotunno, Pierre-Louis Vezina and Zheng Wang, it explained that during the final years of the Multifiber Agreement the United States imposed strict import quotas on Chinese apparel while it gave African apparel duty- and quota-free access. The combination of these policies led to a rapid but ephemeral rise of African exports.

The authors concluded that the success by African textile exports was due to a temporary transshipment of Chinese apparel driven by quota-hopping Chinese assembly firms. Direct transhipment accounted for about half of the apparel exports to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Click here to read the study.

China-Africa: Cultural Exchange, Namibia, and Lessons from Pacific Islands

The November 2012 issue of The China Monitor published by the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa contains the following articles:

--"What People, What Cultural Exchange? A Reflection on China-Africa" by Tu T. Huynh, Rhodes University in South Africa.

--"Grassroots Perceptions of China in Namibia: Effects on Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy" by Nelago Amadhila, Political Analysis South Africa Ltd.

--"China in the Pacific Islands: What Are the Lessons for Africa?" by Hilary Patroba, University of Cape Town.

Click here to access the November 2012 issue.

Research Issues on China-Africa Relations

I was invited to join a panel on 29 November 2012 at the African Studies Convention in Philadelphia on the problems of doing research on China-Africa relations. I focused on three areas: lack of good Chinese foreign direct investment figures for Africa, the paucity of information on the military relationship and confusion over the number of Chinese in Africa today.

Click here to access my remarks.