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This paper applies Marcel Mauss' Gift Theory in conjunction with Qin Yaqing's Relational Theory to Chinese foreign aid. It proposed that this approach allows to conceptualise Chinese aid to Africa as a continuous gift cycle initiated in Bandung and has been going uninterrupted till today. The paper argues through the language of reciprocity and relationality, China symbolically affords the recipient status in a way that Northern aid does not. The real existing power asymmetries between China and Africa do not per se translate into unlimited influence as China can never be sure of reciprocity and is obliged to keep giving continuously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African trading brokers in China buy knock‐off or copy goods and move them through customs via bribery to African ports; this trade, although illegal, brings desired global products to Africa. This paper, based on interviews with African trading brokers, examines how the internet and Covid‐19 have affected their trade. African customers can now find out the accurate prices of goods; computerized customs regimes make bribery difficult; and Covid‐19 has raised shipping costs. While the informal economic arrangements of these trading brokers will probably continue despite policymakers' efforts to eradicate them, China may no longer be the source of their goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have pointed out that manufacturing wages are relatively higher in African countries than in other countries at similar levels of development, and that this contributes to the continent's lower levels of manufacturing competitiveness. This paper derives unit labor costs (ULCs)—average wages relative to productivity—for two‐digit manufacturing sectors across a sample of 79 developed and developing countries, including 13 African countries, over the 1990–2015 period. We benchmark the ULCs to China and estimate the relationship between relative ULCs and manufacturing sector investment rates and export performance. We find that relative ULCs have a smaller association with exports in Africa relative to other developing regions. There is some evidence that investment responds to changes in relative ULCs in Africa; however, the estimated effects are smaller than in the full sample. Further, we find that for Africa, the level of labor productivity has a quantitatively stronger and more robust association with manufacturing performance than the level of real wages. The results have important implications for industrial policy in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the prospects and promises of continent‐wide infrastructure projects under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and its implications for intra‐regional trade and economic development in Africa. Building on the supply side theory of trade and economic development, and taking cognizance of the impacts of asymmetric market sizes on trade integration, this paper argues that continent‐wide infrastructure projects are perhaps not the biggest constraints to intra‐Africa trade. Consequently, the paper recommends caution in pursuing regional infrastructure projects under the BRI. Given that the economies of most African countries depend largely on natural resources, the BRI could be adopted strategically to establish and manage infrastructure projects that would relax the binding constraints to structural transformation and allow for the development of manufacturing and/or service capabilities in the respective countries, especially in niche areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's entrance in Africa in the early 2000s through the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation has apparently signalled several mutual beneficial agreements. However, there is a view that the Asian tiger's (China) arrival on the African soil was driven by its national interests. Such interests were particularly in the continent's rich mineral resources complex, which are deemed significant for its own economic boom. This observation reflects that scholars and practitioners alike have not uniformly understood China's engagement with Africa. Therefore, this paper problematizes what is often cited as the second "scramble for Africa" within the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It argues that Chinese mining companies' operations in DRC are no different to the early colonial masters who only came to Africa for nothing else but mineral resources in order to develop their own nations at the peril of Africa's own development. Based on Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical lens, this paper seeks to critique the involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in the mineral resources complex of DRC. Methodically, this paper relies on document review and analysis in its broadest sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to position socialist China in the mobility of global socialism in the context of Cold‐War politics. It examines how the techno‐politics of China and the Soviet‐bloc's socialist tropical architecture differently reconfigured thermal exchanges between the environment, human body and a series of other multi‐scalar things in Africa during the 1960s−1980s. Drawing on the theories of thermal material culture, techno‐politics and science and technology studies (STS), it constructs a cross‐cultural comparison between China and Soviet‐bloc, aiming to achieve a more nuanced techno‐political understanding of mid‐late twentieth century socialist architecture in the Global South. It also hopes to contribute to recent scholarship about thermal comfort and governance in the context of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculates the trade efficiency of China's exports to Africa by considering trade inefficiency factors, such as Chinese aid to Africa and Chinese contracted projects. Based on a stochastic frontier gravity model and data for China's exports to 38 African countries from 2010 to 2020, this study draws the following conclusions. First, trade inefficiencies, such as China's aid and contracted projects, play a positive role in promoting China's export trade to Africa. Second, the efficiency of China's export trade to Africa varies significantly in different regions, among which countries with high export trade efficiency are concentrated in North and South Africa. Third, the trade potential and trade expansion space of China's exports to Africa vary significantly among different product sectors, which provides much space for promoting trade policy. We highlight that China's government should develop differentiated regional trade policies due to regional heterogeneity in terms of export trade efficiency between China and African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, China has become a strategic economic partner for both Latin American and African nations. China's economic global relevance is translating via its "Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)" into massive amounts of foreign trade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), loans, and aid for both regions. Recently, China has added a national security and defense dimension to its BRI relationship with both regions. China's global strategic economic, geopolitical, and global defense goals are being expressed in its global "Road and Belt" power initiatives and strategies. This paper explores an additional dimension of China's BRI initiative: its role in both regions' defense industries and national security environments. China is increasingly using its trade and investment leverage with both regions to unbalance their defense choices and strategic defense relationships. China's increasing interactions with African and Latin American countries poses a number of geopolitical implications for both the United States and Western European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the literature on costs and benefits of South-South versus North-South economic exchanges. Unlike the case for North-South exchanges, academic work on South-South economic relations has been historically limited given their marginal importance in the global economy. After the 1990s, the literature has changed in two main ways. First, South-South trade and finance since then has increased dramatically, leading to a bourgeoning literature on the topic. Second, the rise of the Emerging South has opened up new lines of inquiry to include not just the traditional topics of trade and preferential trading agreements, but also cover technology transfer, capital flows, labor migration, institutions, and environment. We discuss how this literature has evolved to take into account the greater complexity of South-South relations with a focus on China in Africa as well as the blurring of the lines between heterodox and mainstream analysis of South-South relations. We end the review by showing how the empirical and theoretical literature is exploring the increasing divergence within the global South between what we refer to as the Emerging South and the Rest of South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African countries face an economic transformation gap. Given the large and growing Chinese presence on the African continent, a fundamental question is whether Chinese firms contribute to, or hinder, economic transformation in Africa. This article conducts a scoping review of over one hundred sources, examining the pathways through which Chinese firms can affect economic transformation. On balance, the literature points to a positive role of Chinese firms. Africa–China trade leads to mixed results, while Chinese investment and infrastructure construction are found to contribute positively to transformation. Chinese firms are also found to support capacity building, spillovers and innovation in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on extensive interviews in China and in Africa over 2 years, the present paper investigates Chinese private direct investment in Africa. Drawing on the Swedish Uppsala model, we explore two mian issues. First, do Chinese private enterprises follow the linear mode to invest in Africa? Second, if not, how do they go out and develop their investments, and who helps them overcome the obstacles to investing in Africa? We find that very few Chinese private enterprises follow a linear internationalization process, and most depend on the local overseas Chinese network and other networks to facilitate their entry into the host market. The reason lies in that Chinese private enterprises are still at the early stage of internationalization. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important ownership advantages of Chinese private enterprises investing in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with Africa has grown exponentially over the last decade with US$95 billion in bilateral trade in 2008 and US$5.4 billion of Chinese investment in Africa for the same year. The growth of Sino-African relations also has an impact on the role of traditional development partners in Africa in particular in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which has already led some traditional development partners to reduce their aid budgets and subsequently their Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to Africa. The objective of this paper is to analyse different development cooperation modalities in Africa of traditional development partners and China. This requires identifying trends in aid, debt relief, general budget support, trade, preferential trade access, and investment flows of both traditional development partners and China. The paper advocates that complementarities can be built between these development modalities on a national, regional and global level. This would enhance development effectiveness, increase efficiency and create win-win situations which would be beneficial to African countries, China and traditional development partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Government has promulgated the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) to increase trade flows and integrate goods markets between China and BRI countries. The validity of purchasing power parity (PPP) implies well‐integrated goods markets, a precondition for further economic convergence, and the next stage of economic integration in factor, service, and financial markets. Our study aims to examine the validity of the PPP and the extent of goods market integration between China and selected BRI countries in Africa. Since the functional form of the cointegrating relationship may not be exact or linear, we adopt the nonparametric rank tests for analysis without prior knowledge and specification of the functional form. We also address the rank problems that occur in multivariate rank tests. Our empirical results provide strong evidence of an unrestricted PPP relationship with reasonably strong evidence of nonlinearity in the data. We also find that some African BRI countries have experienced goods market integration with China during the second‐half period only. This indicates that the introduction of the BRI in 2013 and China's active involvement in African economic development through BRI projects are leading to enhanced goods market integration between China and Africa. The results indicate favorable prospects of closer economic cooperation in the factor, service, and financial markets to build a free trade area or common markets with BRI countries in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's official aid programme is non‐transparent and poorly understood. The paper compares development finance from China and the Organization for Economic Co‐operation Development (OECD) generally and through the examination of two cases of Chinese development cooperation in Africa. These cases illustrate a major argument of the paper: that the lion's share of China's officially supported finance is not actually official development assistance (ODA). China does provide finance that meets the definition of ODA, but this is relatively small. Export credits, non‐concessional state loans or aid used to foster Chinese investment do not fall into the category of ODA. China's cooperation may be developmental, but it is not primarily based on official development aid. This suggests that the institutions established at the OECD to develop and apply standards for foreign aid (the Development Assistance Committee) may not be the right ones to govern these growing ties. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last thirty years, remarkable achievements have been made in China's poverty reduction course. The dramatic fall in China's poor can be attributed mainly to a high rate of economic growth, government poverty reduction policies and targeted programmes and pro-poor macroeconomic and industrial policies. This paper focuses on China's poverty reduction policies and programmes and their impact on the poor regions and poor households. Lessons are drawn for poverty reduction and economic development in African countries. The paper also explores the potential for collaboration in poverty reduction between China and African countries and recommendations are made for the governments and donor agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I perform Arellano-Bond GMM estimations using panel data over the period 1995-2008 and explore the growth effects of Africa's trade with China, distinguishing between the effect of imports and the effect of exports, and controlling for the role of export concentration. Four important results are obtained from the empirical analysis. First, there is no empirical evidence that exports to China enhance growth unconditionally. Second, the results suggest that export concentration enhances the growth effects of exporting to China, implying that countries which export one major commodity to China benefit more (in terms of growth) than do countries that have more diversified exports. Third, contrary to the widely held view that increasing imports from China would have a negative effect, the empirical results show that the share of China in a country's total imports has a robust positive effect on growth. Finally, the evidence suggests that there is an inverted-U relationship between exports to developed countries and growth in Africa. Overall, the results seem to provide support for the hypothesis of growth by destination (i.e., that where a country exports matters for the exporting country's growth and development). I draw on these findings to outline some policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, once a major recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI), has recently become one of the main 'emerging' investors, especially in developing countries. Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) plays a very prominent role in economic interaction with many African countries. This paper empirically investigates the determinants of Chinese OFDI versus 41 African countries over the period 1998-2007. The analysis is novel because it provides empirical support to the existing, so far purely anecdotic, evidence describing Chinese FDI to Africa as driven by natural resources endowments and market potential. The econometric analysis highlights strong interrelationships between Chinese FDI and economic cooperation, which make standard models of investments unfit when assessing the role of China in Africa. It also suggests some new lines of research, exploiting the strong links between these different sources of financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether trade between China and sub-Saharan Africa results in productivity-enhancing technology transfers to sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms. As trade flows between countries potentially results in interactions that lead to technological improvements in the production of goods and services, we parameterize the level of total factor productivity for African manufacturing firms as a function of foreign direct investment flow, and for the country in which it operates, trade openness with China, and its interaction with foreign direct investment. With micro-level data on manufacturing firms in five sub-Saharan African countries, we estimate the parameters of firm-level production functions between 1992 and 2004. Our parameter estimates reveal that across the firms and countries in our sample, there is no relationship between productivity-enhancing foreign direct investment and trade with China. In addition, increasing trade openness with China has no effect on the growth rate of total factor productivity. To the extent that total factor productivity and its growth is a crucial determinant of economic growth and living standards in the long run, our results suggest that increasing trade openness with China is not a long-run source of higher living standards for sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address two major questions. First, the question of whether China and India are displacing the African manufacturing export from the third market. Second, whether there is an evidence of shifting comparative advantage from China and India to Africa. We employed a gravity model with a panel data using 13 African exporters of clothing and accessories for the period 1995–2005 to answer the first question. To answer the second question, we used a flying-geese model and estimated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients on indices of the revealed comparative advantage vectors of the African exporters and China and India for the same period. Both the gravity and flying-geese models predicted similar outcomes. We found that there is strong evidence that China has been displacing African manufactures from the third market while India has been complementing it in the early years of the study. However, the overall third market impact of China and India has been that of complementarity in the later years of the study period. This result is found to vary across countries. Furthermore, we found evidence of shifting comparative advantage from China and India to Africa as the flying-geese theory predicts, South Africa being the leading goose followed by Kenya. The major implication of the study is that, in the world where China and India are reshaping the global economic order dynamically, the outcomes of the traditionally received wisdom of trade liberalization and industrialization policies through export promotion may be uncertain and requires strategic thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of papers on regional economic condition and policy. Some of them are "The Statesman's Yearbook World Gazeteer," edited by John Paxton; "Africa and China," edited by Ukandi G. Damachi; "Getting the Message Across: An Inquiry Into Successes and Failures of Cross-Cultural Communication in the Contemporary World"; and "Reform Laws Affecting Population," by Edmund H. Kellogg.

Lakeshore environments offer an excellent opportunity to explore how early humans adapted to changing landscapes and environments. The Nihewan fluvio‐lacustrine sequence in North China contains one of the densest concentrations of Early Pleistocene Palaeolithic sites outside of Africa. Among these, the Cenjiawan site, dated at 1.1 Ma, draws attention due to the large number of stone tool refits. We present here Cenjiawan's sedimentary context, artefact spatial patterns, size distribution and taphonomic features, which are complemented by an experimental programme to better understand archaeological debitage size patterns, thus enabling a detailed analysis of formation processes at the site. The Cenjiawan assemblage is also interpreted in the light of its geographical and geological context, where a synsedimentary fault induced a minor topographic relief across the lacustrine lakeshore. This resulted in a shallow‐water setting in the down‐thrown hanging wall of the fault compartment, and a fluvial environment in the uplifted footwall. Our results indicate that Cenjiawan, situated in the hanging wall of the fault, underwent minimal disturbance, constituting a remarkable example of optimal preservation of archaeological assemblages in Early Pleistocene lakeshore environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective criminal justice cooperation is critical to combat transnational wildlife crimes and disrupt illegal supply chains. However, few studies have examined criminal justice cooperation between China and African countries, which represent the primary global wildlife importers and exporters, respectively, in combating wildlife crimes. Prompted by the rampant wildlife trafficking between China and Africa, this article aims to fill the literature gap on the topic by examining how the existing forms of criminal justice cooperation (formal and informal cooperation) are currently being used and exploring the strengths, limitations and interactions of the two forms of cooperation through in‐depth interviews and comparative analysis. The findings indicate that both formal and informal criminal justice cooperation between China and Africa are crucial to combat transnational wildlife crime. Where formal cooperation is absent, the informal approach can promote cooperation to address wildlife trafficking to some extent. Although there has been gradual progress in criminal justice cooperation between China and Africa in recent years, this article shows that the immature development of formal criminal justice cooperation and the rare use of the anti‐money laundering mechanism for informal cooperation have resulted in sub‐optimally effective criminal justice cooperation. The article offers suggestions to enhance formal and informal criminal justice cooperation under the multi‐actor collaboration arrangement for future criminal justice cooperation between China and Africa to address transnational illegal wildlife trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on a paper by M. Davies and colleagues discussing the influence of China's economic policies and decline of state-owned enterprises on the economic relationship between China and Africa. Topics discussed include economic implications of China's outward foreign direct investment, role of African countries in strengthening their policies related to special economic zones and infrastructure, and China's foreign aid to Zambia's copper mining industry.

This article documents that African leaders' state visits to China could stimulate China's exports to Africa in capital intensive manufacturing goods. We further find that state visits significantly increase official aid and exports by state-owned enterprises to African countries which contribute to the trade growth after state visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies a Chinese theoretical framework—relationality, as articulated by Qin Yaqing—to explain how Beijing creates and manipulates its relations with African partners to advance its "core interests" and leadership of the Global South. Relationality elucidates the "Community of Shared Future for Mankind"—an interlocking, multitiered network of Sinocentric relationships based on traditional Confucian conceptions of reciprocity. The pervasiveness of China's influence in Africa can be explained by its overlapping latticework of relationships involving thousands of African elites traversing all four levels—bilateral, subregional, regional and global. At each level, Chinese interlocutors use material support, inclusive rhetoric and host diplomacy to create and perpetuate so‐called "win–win" relationships with African partners. Because the "relational power" these dyads generate disproportionately strengthens the weaker side, China can elicit African compliance by reducing—or threatening to reduce—its shared economic and political resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the expanding bilateral trade relations between China and Africa. In a white paper released on December 23, 2010, the Chinese government spoke of the revitalized development of trade, investment, infrastructure, and capacity building in the continent. It also lauded the enhanced cooperation in finance and tourism between both sides. However, African governments are concerned with the influx of Chinese workers and technology transfer.

The observed presence of China in the top 18 oil/minerals exporting countries in Africa warrants special interest, as the engagement has extended considerably to appear as an influential, hitherto questionable, South–South cooperation. In this study, the determinants of China's Foreign direct investment (FDI) stock and flow from 2003 to 2017 is examined using Ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized least squares (GLS) and Instrumental Variable 2‐Stage Least Squares techniques. The results indicate that oil/minerals and agricultural imports facilitate more FDI, and political instability spurs more FDI. Overall, this study recommends that policymakers should enhance trade policies to improve the sustainability of China–Africa engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of animal derivatives in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) dates back more than 5000 years. Donkey skins are one such animal derivative, the skins are used to produce ejiao, which is a luxury product and believed by some to have a variety of health benefits. The increasing demand for ejiao is putting the global donkey population at risk. In China between 1990 and 2018 the donkey population decreased by 77 per cent, as a consequence donkeys are largely being sourced from Africa to meet the demand. In low and middle‐income countries donkeys are a valuable livelihood asset. Research has emerged highlighting the potential detrimental impacts of the loss of donkeys on livelihoods. In addition to the impact on communities, the trade presents a number of signifcant health and welfare concerns to donkeys. Methods for raising awareness, reducing demand and challenging and enforcing policy are all needed to reduce the impact of the donkey skin trade. Policy change needs to be bottom up, with local bans in countries where the trade is most damaging and coordinated enforcement of legislation, including the tackling of illegal cross border trade. Partnership across non‐governmental organisations, agencies and government is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since generating sustained economic growth in Africa remains one of the most pressing challenges to development, it is imperative that Africa-specific determinants of economic growth are investigated. At the same time, in spite of recent slight slowdown, China's economic growth and its capacity to move in thirty years from underdevelopment and extreme poverty to an emerging global economic power had attracted the attention of many developing countries, including those in Africa. Some key questions arise: Can China serve as a growth model for Africa? And what lessons can we draw from the Chinese experience of soaring economic growth? We therefore investigate the determinants of economic growth in Africa (North and sub-Saharan Africa), using an Africa-only sample with five non-overlapping three-year averages of cross-sectional data between 1996 and 2010. We also do the same for China for the period, 1980 to 2010, while discussing recent trade, investment and aid/debt relations between Africa and China. Our results suggest that domestic investment, net ODA inflows, education, government effectiveness, urban population, and metal prices positively and significantly affect Africa's economic growth. For China, the key factors driving its economic growth are domestic investment, trade openness, initial income, and rural share of the population. Factors driving down China's growth include inflation rate, domestic credit to the private sector, net ODA inflows, population growth, telephone density, and oil and agricultural/raw materials prices. One key finding is that while Africa is almost twice as open as China, openness does not positively and significantly affect Africa's growth, unlike in China. A principal source is that Africa imports (mainly consumer goods) more than it exports while the reverse is true for China. Moreover, the structure of Africa's exports is biased towards traditional primary commodity exports unlike China that has rapidly shifted towards manufactures. In addition, Chinese domestic investment is about double that of Africa. The key lessons for Africa from the soaring Dragon's experience are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current China- Africa relations have been statically framed: China invests in the continent and exports resources extracted by its state-owned enterprises and fuelled by aid flows, while simultaneously undercutting African industry through cheap exports. We frame this debate, then explore how the framework could adjust in response to changing economic realities in China, centered on the 'rebalancing' of the growth model toward domestic consumption. We argue that a new wave of private sector-led, low-cost manufacturers may find its way to selected African shores, in the process transforming those economies and the way in which China interacts with them, both for the better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly integrated global market, the nature and extent of spatial interdependence is one key factor influencing firms' location decisions. Spatial interdependence often manifests itself in the form of agglomeration or congestion effects, not just within a country but also in a region. Using Chinese and US overseas investment data, this study presents empirical evidence on the role that neighbouring countries (third‐country effects) play in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to a host country. The study's findings show that there is evidence of spatial interdependence both for Chinese and USA FDI flows to African countries. For both countries, the third country effects come through either explanatory variables (including market size, domestic credit, trade costs and the share of service sector), error term or the amount of FDI in neighbouring countries. The findings also show that there is more robust evidence that, unlike Chinese FDI, the US FDI takes into account the market potentials of not just a host country but also that of a neighbouring country in making investment location decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese investment in Africa has stimulated debate. Africa needs foreign investment for its economic development. China assists other developing economies. However, Chinese investment focuses more on expropriating colonized wealth and failed to provide the same legal property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Motivation: In the last decade, economic and political ties between China and African countries grew fast, fuelling a heated debate about the implications for the latter and for the global system of China's engagement in Africa. Purpose: The article reviews the existing evidence on the nature, causes and impact of China's economic engagement in Africa. Approach and methods: The review focuses mainly on the economic literature with a quantitative focus. Findings: China's reasons to engage with Africa are not so different from those of western countries: securing natural resources and seeking new export markets. However, there is evidence that China is less interested in the quality of governance and institutions of its African partners. The literature tends to agree on the positive growth effects for African countries of Chinese interest, but also suggests that their already thin manufacturing sector could be adversely affected by Chinese competition and that the increasing natural resource specialization of African countries might hamper diversification, structural transformation and future growth prospects. At the same time Chinese investments are building valuable infrastructure and linkages with local firms, which are growing although still very limited. The emergent trend of increasing presence of small and medium Chinese firms in Africa is promising in this respect. Policy implications: Increased Chinese interactions with African countries present opportunities as well as threats for African countries. A key aspect will be the capacity of Chinese presence in Africa to spread to the local economy through spillover effects and linkages to the domestic economy. Both sides should introduce policies aimed at strengthening these linkages and spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study replicates and extends previous research focusing on China, to a sub-Saharan African emerging economy environment. Specifically, the study directly replicates the impact of social capital derived from the micro-managerial networking relationships and ties with top managers at other firms and government officials on macro-organizational performance using data from Ghana. This study further extends previous work by examining the impact of social capital derived from managerial social networking relationships and ties with community leaders on organizational performance. It examines how the relationship between social capital and organizational performance is contingent on an organization's competitive strategic orientation. The findings suggest that social capital developed from managerial networking and social relationships with top managers at other firms, government officials (political leaders and bureaucratic officials), and community leadership enhance organizational performance. The findings from the contingency analyses reveal some interesting trends. The impact of social capital on organizational performance differs between firms that pursue the different competitive strategies (low-cost, differentiation, and combination of low-cost and differentiation) and those who do not pursue those strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on a paper by M. Davies and others which discusses the influence of China's economic policies on the foreign economic relationship between China and Africa. Topics discussed include challenges faced by China in managing special economic zones, analysis of surveys by United Nations Industrial Development Organization on average wages of the manufacturing sector in Sub-Saharan African countries, and influence of agricultural development on sustainable development in Africa.

Based on archival research and multi-sited fieldwork among Chinese and migrants from Africa in Guangzhou, Yiwu (China), and Lagos (Nigeria), this research explores the contradictions and unevenness in the racialization of black African identity in South China. I argue that racism against black Africans in Guangzhou needs to be contextualized within larger contexts such as the rise of China as a global economic power, its changing relations with Africa under the Mao and post-Mao regimes, the intersection of internal and international migration in global cities such as Guangzhou, and the persistent influence of Western racial ideology in popular media. [African Migrants; China; Blackness; Race; Racism] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the issue surrounding the ties between China and Africa. Many have questioned the value of the relationship between the two countries. China provides low-cost development solutions for Africa. However, China's entry clashes with the interests of South African firms. Furthermore, China's interest is not in the high-value manufactured goods South Africa wants to promote, but rather on its raw materials.

While the past decade has seen a remarkable growth in research on external perceptions of the EU, this literature remains characterized by three important gaps: highly uneven geographical coverage, lack of comparisons between the EU and other actors, and a near-exclusive focus on description to the detriment of explanation. This article introduces a novel explanatory framework for perceptions research and applies this to popular perceptions of the EU and China in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries, shedding light on a neglected dimension of the 'traditional' versus 'emerging donors' debate. It finds, first, that China has quickly succeeded in becoming more well-known among African populations than the EU. Second, popular perceptions do not reflect the antagonism pervading the discourse on 'emerging donors', with both the EU and China enjoying broad-based popular support. Finally, preferences are a function primarily of individual experiences and outlooks, refuting earlier claims on the importance of national-level factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, 5.8 per cent of enrolled tertiary students go outside their homelands for tertiary study. No other world region has this high a share of outbound student mobility. In this study, I examined why African countries have larger student outflows than other regions and, in particular, I considered the importance of tertiary education capacity in the region for student mobility. I evaluated the determinants of student outflows from African countries for three different measures: the total number of tertiary students abroad, the percentage of the tertiary age cohort studying abroad and the percentage of total enrolled students abroad. In addition to showing that country rankings differ on these mobility measures, the findings indicate that their determinants also differ. The study premise was that student outflows should be lower from countries that have a greater supply of tertiary training capacity and that thesis received strong support in models that estimated the percentage of total enrolled students abroad. In models for that outcome, student outflows were also larger if countries had high tertiary demand and populations under 2 million. The findings for models that estimated total numbers abroad and share of the tertiary cohort abroad were similar after controlling for interactions between tertiary education supply and GDP per capita. In addition, population size and per capita GDP were stronger correlates of student mobility in those models, which suggests that it is more difficult for education supply and demand measures to account for student outflows when crude outflow measures are used. I concluded that strengthening tertiary education supply at home would be a cost-effective way for African governments to increase their human capital and reduce brain drain losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global adjustment to the rise of the BRIC and other emerging economies is an important challenge for firms in the advanced economies. Emerging market firms increasingly trade and invest globally while monetary imbalances continue to rise and hobble advanced economy firms. Advanced country firms feel like they live in glass houses as the tectonic forces of technology, demographics, globalization, sustainability, and climate change force obsolescence in their business models. In this article, this overseas projection of economic power by the rising new economies is illustrated by the Indian and Chinese overseas economic expansion focused on Africa. This analysis shows that noneconomic state‐driven entities are likely to be a significant part of the rise of South‐South economic trade and investment flows and it poses theoretical and practical problems for existing market‐based economic and geopolitical institutions. Global adjustment to these new realities is also challenging as existing multilateral institutions seem to be inadequate. These changes in the global environment have significant implications for policy makers and managers of global companies. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This publication covers economic, financial and technical issues from Africa. Such issues include continental developments, policy and practice, industries, and communications and transport. The publication also covers China's growing share of South Africa's manufacturing import and export markets and foreign loans.

Africa's external relations are currently undergoing major changes. Non-traditional state actors like China and India are reviving their ties with African economies and thereby affecting power relations between African states and traditional partners. Meanwhile, high commodity prices and improved credit ratings make external finance available for African governments. This article examines how non-traditional state actors affect the possibility of African governments setting and funding their own development priorities. It argues that while the current situation may increase the policy autonomy for African economies this is largely a consequence of the increased availability of external finance - and not just from non-traditional state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on whether China's relationship with Africa can be characterized as 'neo-imperialist' has focused primarily on the features of the contemporary engagement. This has polarized the field. The debate has not yet made systematic reference to the mechanisms of imperialism through which the original 'scramble for Africa' was carried out by colonial powers at the turn of the 20th century. This article carries out this historical comparison, contrasting the imperial partition of Africa around 1880-1914 with current Sino- African relations. It is evident that there are many similarities, from the multiple agendas of the actors and the role of compradors through to patterns of investment and financing. The article raises questions, however, concerning the utility of the concept of 'neo-imperialism' given its implicit negativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the prohibition of plastic bags worldwide. It states that several countries ban the use of plastic bags, including China which will outlaw thin plastic shopping bags as of June 1, 2008, and several African and Asian countries have already banned flimsy bags. Sue Kinsey, of the Litter Policy Office of the Maritime Conservation Society, states that plastic bags are hazardous to marine animals and birds that lead them to death. Luis Diaz, editor-in-chief of the journal Waste Management, expects that people will accept the ban on plastics bags.

The world economy is in a state of flux. While most OECD countries struggle to minimize the damage of the global financial crisis, a few countries maintain positive economic growth rates and are thus changing global power configurations. Among the most important emerging economies for international development are the BASIC countries: Brazil, South Africa, India and China. This article analyses why these countries have rejuvenated development cooperation, what they actually do in Africa, and how they do it. It argues that the most important aspect of the rejuvenation of non-traditional donors' development cooperation with African economies is not the direct effects on these economies, be they positive or negative, but the potential gains that may accrue to African economies in terms of larger room for manoeuvre due to increased competition and the challenge to traditional donors' development hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates whether the Sino-European partnership can be considered strategic. At the discourse level it is found that both sides fail to identify common interests, joint priorities continue to be concentrated in the business sector, and China and Europe have not been able to determine what the relevance of their relationship is compared to other powers. In practice this is even more problematic. The strategic vacuum renders the partnership vulnerable to setbacks and means that China will be even more tempted to capitalize on Europe's internal divisions while Member States will feel less inclined to close ranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the empirical determinants of China's outward direct investment (ODI). It is found that China's investments in developed and developing countries are driven by different sets of factors. Subject to the differences between developed and developing countries, there is evidence that: (i) both market-seeking and resource-seeking motives drive China's ODI; (ii) Chinese exports to developing countries induce China's ODI; (iii) China's international reserves promote its ODI; and (iv) Chinese capital tends to agglomerate among developed economies but diversify among developing economies. Similar results are obtained using alternative ODI data. We do not find substantial evidence that China invests in African and oil-producing countries mainly for their natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the economic geography of development in Africa and the role played by China in developments on the continent. The global economy, poverty, AIDS, fertilizers, road building, and international financial institutions are mentioned. Questions regarding the intentions of China are asked, including a need to fuel its burgeoning capitalist economy, as well as imperialist concerns. The oil industry in Africa is also discussed, including in the Gulf of Guinea. Migration of Chinese workers into various African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, Mauritius and Zambia, is also dealt with.