The agency problem in readings of Sino–African relations

Abstract

The study of Sino–African relations expanded in line with increased interaction between the People’s Republic of China (China) and the African continent, which corresponded with the first Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000.1 The pre-2000 literature on Sino–African relations tended to focus on China’s competition with the USA, Taiwan, and the Soviet Union in proxy conflicts through Africa during the Cold War,2 or on China’s attempt to find new partners in the post–Cold War era.3 However, even during this period where security dominated the literature on Sino–African relations, scholars such as Philip Snow4 and Gao Jinyuan5 highlighted that the relationship between the two entities was more complex and deeper than had been presented at the time. The huge increase in the literature on Sino–African relations since the 2000s has emerged from many different disciplines, including area studies, anthropology, business, development, political sciences, and geography.6 This has proven the validity of Snow’s and Gao’s approach to Sino–African relations, which said that the relationship needs to be understood as an all-encompassing complex relationship that deals in all areas of human exchange, such as social and cultural exchanges, economic cooperation, and cultural exchanges. This was best summed up by Sarah Raine in China’s African challenges, who stated that:

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