Is China colonizing Africa?

Abstract

Africa–China relations are defined and determined not just by Africa and China but also by Western reactions to the relation between them. By that definition European states acted as colonizing powers in Africa and Asia, but they went far beyond colonialism through the slave trade, proxy wars, and imposing cultural norms. While Western and Chinese international institutions – two powerful Global Economic Governance shapers – may eventually come closer and work complementarily, the former group has an interest in undergoing strong stock-taking and self-introspective exercise informed by China's extraordinarily successful expansion into Africa. Many of African and Asian countries subsequently joined the "Nonaligned Movement", an alliance against colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, which refused falling in any of the two military blocks and focused instead on economic development cooperation. A key feature of Chinese engagement in Africa is a relatively high ratio of Foreign Direct Investments to Official Development Assistance (ODA) and trade to ODA when compared to the West.

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