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Can and does realism explain the linkage between China's economic advancement and its ever-increasing hard power and global influence? Realists assert that a growth in a nation's economy triggers an upsurge in its craving for military or security advancement and power. Since the commencement of China's 'opening policy,' its economy has witnessed tremendous hikes, being ranked second to the US economy. A vital coincidence of this is the ever-increasing attempt to modernising its military and general security systems. Of major concern is China's recently established foreign military base in Djibouti in the 'Horn of Africa.' Realists have suggested that in such a Hobbesian world, Beijing will employ its economic power to assert its security interests. Analysing this linkage through a realist perspective, using case studies and historical analogies, the article concludes that realism best provides reasons for the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article process-traces Ethiopia's adoption and implementation of the industrial park development strategy from the mid 2000s to the late 2010s. How does policy transfer unfold, and what characterizes China's influence on Ethiopia's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) strategy? Drawing on extensive interviews conducted during multiple field trips to Ethiopia and China between 2017 and 2023, complemented by secondary sources, we argue that policy transfer involves navigating both structural opportunities—providing incentives and resources for individuals—and individual agency to surmount structural constraints. Contributing to the growing body of literature on South-South policy transfer, our study underscores the pivotal role of individual agency in overcoming prevalent structural constraints within South-South contexts, characterized by fluid power relations and less defined policy transfer networks. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of scrutinizing the agency of host-country actors in their engagements with a rising China, rather than assuming China's impacts in a deterministic manner. Our detailed documentation offers a nuanced perspective on China's influence in Ethiopia's industrialization. We show that primary agency in the policy transfer process should be attributed to Ethiopian actors, whereas the roles of Chinese actors range from initiation, facilitation, and occasionally, reluctant responses in this intricate process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the political economy of China in Africa to unpack whether this foreign presence represents a miracle or a mirage for the continent. Data was gleaned from books, articles, official documents and the 2021 Afrobarometer Dispatch 489 survey (AD489). The paper argues that China is a rational actor that engages with Africa to advance its national interests. The Chinese presence in Africa has elicited divergent reactions from Africans of different social groups. The non-interference principle of the Beijing Consensus has led African power elites to embrace China as a reliable partner. Yet, the reactions of local Africans are mixed. While some applaud China’s contributions to infrastructure development, others criticise it for employing debt-trap diplomacy to assert hegemonic dominance on the continent, exploit African labour and extract resources. The criticism from Africans has led China to attempt to formulate corporate social responsibility policies, establish environmentally sustainable industries and ensure favourable working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on panel data from 2000 to 2021 covering African 52 countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and utilizing a system generalized method of moments with instrumental variables, the study finds that China's financing has played a positive role in both export and import intensities of African countries with China. However, the impacts of different financing types on trade intensities vary by different country groups and periods. First, Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has a much bigger impact on both export intensity and import intensity, and aid has a much bigger impact on export intensity in resource-rich African countries than other countries. Second, Chinese OFDI has a much bigger impact on export intensity and aid has a much bigger impact on both export and import intensities in low-income African countries than other countries. Third, the regression results from different periods indicate that Chinese financing has enhanced the bidirectional trade relations between China and Africa since BRI launch. The study is conducive to the exploration of multinational corporations and foreign aid's role in trade relations and will help African countries use Chinese capital to promote bilateral cooperation and get rid of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between South Africa and China has not reached its full potential but has gathered great impetus and simultaneously stirred up controversy. Two important issues that have arisen concerning this relationship are whether the engagements between the two countries are mutually beneficial or asymmetrically favour one country over the other. This paper interrogates South Africa-China relations between 2009 and 2019, an epoch in which the relationship between the two nations became convoluted as much for what it entailed as for what it excluded. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants, and the information that was gathered was supplemented with a review of the literature within the context of the relationship. We found that South Africa-China relations go beyond the issues of minerals and other related natural resources. We also found that while there are elements of asymmetry in this relationship in economic terms, this asymmetry is somewhat exaggerated. We, therefore, recommend that regardless of this exaggeration, South Africa must place itself in a position to define terms of engagement with China and put in place measures to demarcate such perceived asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Africa and the developed world has been a subject of much discussion over the years. Recently, however, there has been a lot of controversy around China's activities in Africa. Several criticisms have arisen alleging the exploitation of Africa by China. This study set out to examine China's activities on the African continent with a focus on Ghana and Ethiopia to clearly reveal the various sides of the argument and put them into perspective. The study also sought to establish whether a new scramble is occurring in Africa, with neocolonialist strategies. The study relied on the realist theory to understand China's intentions regarding its activities on the continent and on neocolonialism to explore any incidence of a new scramble. Secondary sources were employed to collect data for analysis. The study found that although some of the activities of China on the continent were questionable, they have been partially beneficial to the continent. Africa is not as vulnerable as perceived but has the capacity to leverage some of its resources to foster its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Interventions Économiques is the property of Association d'Economie Politique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper reports on the impact of China's Community of Shared Destiny Policy (CCSDP) on ethnicity, and the development and trade benefits in Africa, whilst proposing suggestions for improvements. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-research (desktop-based and online survey-based) approach was employed. Findings: Trade and foreign direct investment alone can account for 11.8% of changes in the peaceful coexistence of China and some selected African countries, and cause changes to the mutual prosperity of China and African nations, to the tune of 6.3%. Therefore, the activation of mutual prosperity among these nations is not necessarily trade and foreign direct investment. The CCSDP is effective and has increased economic development for ethnic groups (50%), although with some negative concerns. Research limitations/implications: Inadequate/small sample size for the study. Originality/value: Chinese investment in Africa has had a transformative impact, driving economic growth, improving infrastructure, and fostering regional integration. The share of trade between China and Africa in the continent's overall external trade has increased dramatically. Overall, the CCSDP should be kept in place, but with some modifications to improve its effectiveness and mitigate its negative effects. Finally, as China's engagement with Africa evolves, it is vital that partnerships are founded on mutual understanding, respect, and benefit, and that policies reflect the different needs and ambitions of African communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores China's African public relations and image‐building effort, focusing on Nigeria. Thus, the paper's purpose is twofold: first, to investigate whether China's conduct of public diplomacy through its soft power resource—development assistance—has effectively shaped positive Nigerian public perception of China, and second, to determine the media's role in advancing China's public diplomacy in Nigeria. Specifically, it explores the interaction of economic development assistance, media, and public relations. I do this by comparing China's foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria (2010–2019) with the public's perception of the FDI's influence on the Nigerian economy (2016 and 2020) and the media's role in shaping public support toward the investments. Utilizing a range of datasets, I find that Chinese economic investment alone is insufficient to substantially shape positive Nigerian public perception of China. Within a framework of mediated public diplomacy, I demonstrate that the Chinese image‐building effort in Nigeria would likely enhance when the country links economic investments with public relations to make the investments more visible through effective media representation. Related Articles: Ayhan, Kadir Jun, and Nancy Snow. 2021. "Introduction to the Special Issue—Global Korea Scholarship: Empirical Evaluation of a Non‐Western Scholarship Program from a Public Diplomacy Perspective." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1282–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12440. Hodzi, Obert, and John H. S. Åberg. 2020. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Strategic Deployment of the China Model in Africa." Politics & Policy 48(5): 804–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12378. Huijgh, Ellen. 2017. "Indonesia's 'Intermestic' Public Diplomacy: Features and Future." Politics & Policy 45(5): 762–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12221. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management & Organization Review is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's economic engagement with Africa has expanded significantly in recent years. While some scholars highlight the engagement as critical for sustainable development in Africa, others argue that the rules of engagement tend to favor China and encourage unequal economic exchange. This article weighs into the discussion on unequal economic exchange. It uses international trade data from 1995 to 2015 to estimate the amount of unequal economic exchange in China's trade with Africa. The estimate is based on a simple method that applies an exchange rate deviation factor to the trade flows between China and Africa, and further adjusts for the difference in labor productivity between the two trading regions. Results show significant unrecorded transfers of value from Africa to China, amounting to 2.5% of the total gross domestic product of African countries during the sample period. The article suggests several policy strategies to improve Chinese engagement with Africa and reinforce the continent's progress towards sustainable development. In addition, the article provides a theoretical and empirical framework that can be useful for analyzing Africa's trade engagement, not only with China, but with other regions of the world as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Scramble for Africa' has historically been a concept used to describe the plunder of Africa by colonial powers, their subsequent economic capture of African resources, their political control and their racial domination of Africans. But, in recent times, many writers have pointed to Chinese 'Scramble for Africa'. Of these depictions, The Economist 's has been both categorical and relentless. But is the set of relationships between China and African countries imperial? Does it amount to a Chinese 'Scramble for Africa'? If so, what can be done; if not, why not? Neither content nor institutional analyses of 27 stories, sampled from 132 issues of The Economist from 2019 to 2021, show conclusive evidence that the relationship between China and Africa is imperial. Evidence of African indebtedness to China, Chinese opaque resource transactions in Africa, and the controlling effect of China's Belt and Road Initiative typically emphasised by The Economist is serious. But it does not amount to economic plunder, political control, military destabilisation or racial domination. The Economist 's characterisation of China–Africa relations reflects wider processes of Westernisation. Its features include the use of mainstream economic analysis, (mis)representation of the Global South to maintain Western hegemony and inhibiting Southern struggle to break the Western chokehold on global development. As an elite newspaper, The Economist 's 'frame analysis' not only presents news, but also produces views that caricature Global South agendas, especially those that threaten Western liberalism and imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines China’s increasing security interests in Africa. It seeks to understand the nature and scope of Chinese engagement in peace and security issues on the continent based on its engagement in international and domestic (African) politics. Through literature analysis and logical reasoning, the author intends to define the implications of China’s new role as a security provider. The paper is based on desk research using primary and secondary data and statistical and comparative analysis of official documents, academic research, and media sources. The methods include literature analysis, logical reasoning, statistical research, comparative analysis, and the inductive method to build general theorems. The paper analyses aspects of China’s security engagement on the African continent: its participation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, small arms exports, and Beijing’s sharing of technology with African partners. China’s engagement in Africa’s security helps to advance its vital economic and political interests, with limited impact on African security. Key lessons for African partners are offered. The last decades have seen an extraordinary increase in China’s economic and political ties with Africa. Security cooperation followed massive Chinese investments and thousands of Chinese nationals working on the continent. China’s security engagement in Africa protects Beijing’s interests regarding access to resources, markets, political influence, and social credibility. It has little to do with a benevolent will to help Africa deal with instability or economic underdevelopment. African partners must make necessary efforts to avoid further dependence on China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese imports replace locally manufactured products in developing countries. The import of consumer goods from China to West Africa is closely linked to commercial travel, and China's border restrictions during the Covid outbreak put a near-halt to such travelling. Furthermore, the pandemic caused a global logistics crisis that disrupted supply chains with production in China. This paper asks whether Ghanaian manufacturers and artisanal producers could take advantage of these disruptions to enhance their competitive position. Did China's border closure provide space for local Ghanaian producers to thrive? We address this question by drawing on data collected among Ghanaian plastic manufacturers and furniture makers, who have faced tough competition from Chinese imports. Our analysis shows that supply chain disruptions from China led to the substitution of certain products previously imported from China, and these effects were partially sustained after the Covid-induced barriers to imports from China were removed. However, the disruptions were also costly for many Ghanaian producers, as they depended on Chinese intermediary products, tools, and other inputs. This illustrates how economic lives in Ghana and China have become so profoundly intertwined that indiscriminate decoupling is neither possible nor desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris administration working toward the resetting of policies and strategies toward Africa and China, the question of whether African journalists will be accorded a chance to tell an African narrative amid the trilateral relationship has become more apparent. The influence exerted by China in African poses questions of whether China is "constructively" reporting Africa and whether journalists do see themselves as telling an African story. This study interrogates the role of African journalistic paradigms within a broader framework of what it means to constructively report Africa. It argues that despite the overwhelming challenges, the African media can tell its narrative if, (a). it seriously interrogates its journalism education system, (b). focus on in-depth reporting as opposed to efficiency and convenience, and (c). value its epistemologies and localize its content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and the rapid depletion of natural assets have made many countries anxious to find green growth strategies, including global partnerships and international business. China has positioned itself as the right partner for sustainable growth and development in Africa through different engagement routes. In this study, we employ fixed effects on a sample of 27 countries over 17 years to examine the impact of China's foreign direct investment and trade on green growth in Africa. Our results show that China's investment and trade affect green growth differently. We find that foreign direct investment and export have a negative impact on green growth. Contrarily, we find importation from China to increase green growth. Our results suggest that the growing presence of China in Africa through direct investment and exportation of natural resources is likely to hamper achieving the Sustainable Development Growth goals. However, countries can harness some benefits from importing sustainable products from China. Our study extends the green growth literature and informs policymakers of the need to pay attention to the effects of growing Chinese‐Africa engagement on attaining sustainable and greener growth. The results are robust to different identification techniques, including two‐stage least square and system generalised method of movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ascending to the presidency at the time of the lingering global economic crisis, Jacob Zuma drew South Africa closer to China as an alternative development partner. The scholarly literature on South Africa–China relations during Zuma's administration focuses largely on whether the relationship was mutually beneficial and on the purported shift in South Africa's foreign policy from Euro-American developed countries towards the East, with China being at the forefront. Despite the widespread calls for radical economic transformation during Zuma's administration, the existing discourse has not interrogated the practicality of the proposed policy in the context of South Africa–China relations. In light of the above, the current article adopts Afrocentricity to interrogate the practicality of radical economic transformation in the context of South Africa–China relations. Methodologically, the author engaged in qualitative desktop research that relied heavily on secondary data and employed document review to analyse the collected data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with the African continent has faced extensive critique over the past few decades, with most explanations broadly falling under the umbrella of three metanarratives: a 'developing partner', an 'economic competitor' or a 'hegemonic actor'. 1 Although these labels help to make intelligible the broad intentions of China's interaction on the continent, they unwittingly gloss over the importance of choice and agency that the African nations continue to hold in deciding their future trajectories. Essentially, deconstructing these narratives to uncover the principal characteristics of China's approach to the African continent is the central puzzle of this study. The study further questions the extent to which the agency of African nations determines their relationship with China. This article essentially proposes that while each of the three descriptions provides an insight into the various facets of the Sino-African relationship, none of them captures the whole picture, and instead, China's approach to the African continent is best understood by its pragmatism, which is guided by its political aspirations and economic objectives. Furthermore, the study argues that the agency of each African nation also plays a part in shaping how China's pragmatic approach further translates into one of the three metanarratives. The article relies on an inductive exploration of its central research question and uses a variety of sources, which include data from international institutions and governments, government releases and secondary literature, amongst others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the sources from which Nigerian university students receive information about China. The awareness of the Nigerian youth about China's initiatives such as 'One Belt One Road' and 'Forum on China-Africa Cooperation' further discloses the perception of the students on the rise of China and its influence on global affairs. In addition, the study reveals how African students perceive China as a trade partner. The results indicate the internet and social media are major sources of awareness. Some students are somewhat aware of the Chinese initiatives, but others have never heard about these initiatives. The students think that China has influence in the World and African affairs and are neutral about the responsible behavior of China as a global power. Students are positive about the Chinese development model and are concerned about the influx of Chinese labor in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of China as a new great power and the evolving patterns of Sino–African relations have generated different interpretations of the ambitions of China in Africa and the consequences for the continent. In this article, we outline the dominant trends in China's activities in Africa in the last 25 years and compare them with those of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We do so, first, in order to identify and highlight the areas of convergence and divergence between the two. We then infer from the analysis the outcome of Sino–African interactions. But we begin with an exploration of aspects of the scholarship of Africa's great conceptualiser, Ali Mazrui, that focus on Africa and the West, in order to adapt some of his conceptual categories to gain comparative insights into the changes and continuities in, on the one hand, China's emerging system of empire, or neo-dependency, in Africa, and, on the other hand, Europe's colonial empires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the end of ideological competition of the Cold War and as a result of its becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China's rapidly growing international trade volume has led to the quick development of relations with African countries to meet the energy and raw material needs of its economy. This study aims to examine China's increasing influence in Sub-Saharan Africa, the reasons for its interest in the region, conflict issues with Western countries, and relations between Western countries and China within the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. The study examines China's activities in Sub-Saharan Africa within the scope of Power Transition Theory, and thus it is important to provide an understanding global effect of competition between Western countries and China in the region. This qualitative research examines primary data sources such as country leaders and relevant government institutions and secondary data such as books, theses, and articles, and it uses scientific research techniques such as content analysis, discourse analysis, and hermeneutics. The findings of the study show that China has accumulated capital and opened up to the world through Deng Xiaoping's liberal policies, that it has come to the forefront due to its policies of state support to the private sector and non - interference to the internal affairs of countries, that it has differentiated itself from especially Western countries in its policy implementations in Africa, and that China needs Africa to become a dominant power in the world within the scope of Power Transition Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China–Africa relationship has received increased interest over the past few decades as scholars critically examine the challenge that China, in its quest for a closer strategic partnership with Africa, poses to the norms governing the neoliberal world order (NLWO). One crucial aspect of this is international aid, and how Chinese aid to Africa differs from Western aid. This paper argues that Chinese aid reduces the power of traditional aid donors to shape the development route of African countries. This new development finance ultimately breaks the monopoly of Western aid to decide how poor countries in the global 'South' develop. In doing so, the Sino–African aid relationship is challenging the current world order as it offers African states the possibility to decouple (or delink) themselves from the global economy. By challenging assumed neoliberal economic development fundamentals, this relationship, if harnessed correctly by African leaders, can pose longer-term ideological questions around the very set of ideas that underpin development itself, while enabling African states the policy space needed to pursue more sustainable development from an Afro-centric perspective. It is this possibility to delink, due to changing ideological fundamentals concerning economic development, that is the challenge China and Africa pose to the NLWO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Copyright of Çankırı Karatekin University Journal of the Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Cankiri Karatekin University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is divided into three sections. First, it evaluates Professor Ian Taylor’s characteristic approach to the study of China–Africa relations, as showcased in one of his articles. Then, it brings attention to Ian Taylor’s engagement with China since 2009, with a special focus on his non-typical approach to China Studies. Finally, it deals with Ian Taylor’s unfinished project on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China–India relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in ethnographic observations, this article offers a commentary on the visible and invisible dynamics of mobility between China and West and Central Africa. It follows the transnational trajectories of African trader women and takes stock of some of the weight that these women shoulder during trips where goods and money are set in motion. The materiality of the transported consumer items shapes traders' experiences of mobility and immobility. Trader women also must carry immaterial baggage relating to what their mobile, racialized female bodies represent to various people they encounter. Specifically, the Chinese state and general public view their bodies as threats to social order and, in the context of Ebola and COVID-19, as threats to public health. Our analysis also attends to the weight that female scholars metaphorically carry while conducting research. We devote space to addressing our presence as White researchers, thus attending to methodological opaqueness alongside issues of hidden geographies in transnational trade and migration. [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]

Clusters for high-value crops are ubiquitous in China and in African countries. Drawing from three case studies (potato cluster in China, medicinal and aromatic cluster in Egypt, and dates cluster in Tunisia), this chapter discusses the major challenges facing cluster development and the roles of different agents (e.g. entrepreneurs, business associations, and local governments). Cluster development involves supply-side or demand-side bottlenecks along the way, which are beyond the capacity of individual enterprises. Whether a cluster can develop to the next stage depends crucially upon whether the bottlenecks can be resolved. Because the bottlenecks are context- and temporal-specific, it would be impossible for a planner or outsider donor to prescribe a one-size-fits-all intervention to overcome all the binding constraints. Instead, local elites, such as business leaders and local officials, can play a greater role in identifying the emerging bottlenecks and figuring out indigenous solutions. In China, because local governments have an embedded interest in promoting local economic development, they are keen to provide local public goods or initiate joint actions to address the successive binding constraints and facilitate cluster development. By comparison, the role of the local government is more muted in Africa, limiting the growth potentials of agricultural clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a multivariate framework and the most recently available data that include numerous African countries, this investigation has produced the first extensive statistical evaluation of China's image in Africa based on China's various economic relations with Africa, including aid, trade, FDI and contracts. We find that China's economic development assistance, contracts, and to some degree, trade with African countries contribute to a positive image of China in Africa. In addition, we find that people in African countries of a smaller population, poorer livelihood, less open economy, and better governance tend to have positive views of China's political and economic influence. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese economic activities in recipient countries have been increasing. The implications of this research shed light on how BRI may be received in the host countries and the likelihood of its success or failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of host country corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to developing countries in Africa. With the opposing arguments that corruption is detrimental to or instrumental in FDI and mixed empirical evidence, this paper contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on the issue. Additionally, little research has been done on the impact of corruption on FDI made by developing country multinationals to developing countries. This paper fills a void in this area. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the published literature, as well as China and Africa contexts, the authors develop hypotheses that host countries with low corruption receive more FDI and resource-seeking investments weaken the relationship. The annual stock of Chinese FDI in 35 African countries, host country corruption data and other control variables from 2007 to 2015 are collected. Feasible generalized least squares models are used to test the hypotheses. Additional robustness tests are also conducted. Findings: The findings support the hypotheses. Specifically, Chinese investors make more investments in host countries with low corruption except for resource-seeking investments in resource-rich host counties. The results are statistically significant accounting for various control variables. The results of the robustness tests show that the main findings are robust. Originality/value: First, this study provides new evidence on the impact of corruption on FDI. Second, this study also fills a void by examining FDI from a developing country, China to other developing countries in Africa. Finally, this study also has a practical implication for Chinese multinationals investing in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Control; Firearms Policy; United States; Canada; Evidence; Narrative Policy Framework; NPF; Climate Change; Internally Displaced People; International Law; Mobile Money Innovations; Foreign Policy; Smart Power; China; Middle East and North Africa; MENA; South Africa; Southeast Asia; North Korea EN Gun Violence Gun Control Firearms Policy United States Canada Evidence Narrative Policy Framework NPF Climate Change Internally Displaced People International Law Mobile Money Innovations Foreign Policy Smart Power China Middle East and North Africa MENA South Africa Southeast Asia North Korea 436 441 6 08/01/22 20220901 NES 220901 At the time of writing this Editor's Note, it has been but a few weeks since the horrifying school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022, that killed 19 children and two teachers, and the supermarket massacre of ten people in Buffalo, New York ten days earlier. " Debating Gun Control in Canada and the United States: Divergent Policy Frames and Political Cultures." In "Aiming for Success: Toward an Evidence-based Evaluation Framework for Gun Control Policies", Schwartz demonstrates how scholarly evidence can fail to have a strong impact on emotional and value-laden policy debates. " Policy Gridlock versus Policy Shift in Gun Politics: A Comparative Veto Player Analysis of Gun Control Policies in the United States and Canada.". [Extracted from the article]

We are living through a global urban transition, but the timing of this transition has varied significantly across countries and regions. This geographic variation in timing matters, both theoretically and substantively. Yet contemporary debates on urbanism hinge primarily on questions of universalism versus particularism, at the expense of attention to how history and geography collide to shape urban processes. Specifically, they neglect the critical fact that urbanisation in many countries today is late within the context of the global urban transition. We argue that trajectories of contemporary urbanisation must be understood in relation to a suite of conditions unique to the late 20th and early 21st centuries and partly shaped by early urbanisation, including historically unprecedented demographic intensity, hyperglobalisation, centripetal state politics and the spectre of environmental catastrophe in the late Anthropocene. These factors condition the range of possibilities for late urbanisers in ways that did not apply to early urbanisers yet can also produce diverse outcomes depending on local circumstances. We draw on a comparison between countries in sub-Saharan Africa and China to illustrate why the conditions of late urbanisation matter, but also why they have produced highly variable outcomes and are not deterministic of urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the institutional structures and other predictors that determine bilateral trade between Africa and China from 1995 to 2017. Design/methodology/approach: In line with the gravity model of trade, institutional, geographical and socio-economic determinants of China's bilateral trade with 18 African oil/minerals exporting countries are examined by deploying Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood and dynamic bias-corrected least squares dummy variable econometric techniques. Findings: The results indicate that China's oil/minerals imports from Africa are higher than imports of manufacturing and agricultural goods, and institutional structures indicate that a weak politically stable region with less control of corruption has a discernible effect on trade. Research limitations/implications: Further insight can be gained if the type of manufactured goods being exported to China is examined; this is necessary given that China crowds out Africa's manufactured goods. Therefore, this study recommends the need for Africa to continually strengthen its institutional structures to stimulate trade from other regions. Originality/value: This study examines the quality of the institutional structures (political stability and corruption) in African oil/minerals exporting countries, considering that China has been alleged for capitalising on Africa's weak institutional structures to trade with the resource-endowed region. For the first time, the UN COMTRADE HS product-country-partner-year trade data is used to examine on bilateral sector trade China–Africa links rather than proxies used in the studies of Biggeri and Sanfilippo (2009), De Grauwe et al. (2012) and Foad (2011) that did not capture the real trade value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the global COVID-19 crisis, China has portrayed itself as a "champion of multilateralism" -- defending UN institutions and its own multilateral initiatives in a variety of spheres. China's approach has, however, often been criticised for undermining multilateralism through its use of multilateral platforms as arenas to contest US leadership. This paper examines the official Chinese discourse on multilateralism during the COVID 19 crisis in the years 2020 and 2021 in light of Beijing's multilateral diplomacy in the Global South, exemplified by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the China-CELAC Forum (China--Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum). The authors argue that China's growing multilateral engagement must be understood in the context of a multilateral system that was already in crisis before the pandemic due to its inability to resolve major global challenges. The term "multilateralism" is essentially used by Beijing to discursively oppose "unilateralism". While its active multilateral engagement may be able to prevent and resolve major global crises in the future, Beijing's approach offers limited multilateral spaces for deliberation and contestation by weaker states and non-state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Health Organization (WHO) certified China malaria-free on June 30, 2021, which brightens the goal of global malaria elimination efforts. China contributed its unique innovations to the global community: Artemisinin, discovered by Tu Youyou, has saved millions of lives globally; the "1-3-7" norm developed in 2012, has been adapted in the local contexts of countries in the Southeast Asia and Africa. How to the targets of Global Technical Strategy for Malaria (GTS) 2016−2030. By looking into the malaria control phase, towards elimination phase from 1960 to 2011 in sub-Saharan Africa and China, we found that the gap in malaria burden will widen unless the interventions in Africa are enhanced. It is imperative to identify the key China–Africa cooperation areas on malaria control and elimination, so that synergized efforts could be pooled together to help African countries achieve the elimination goal. The practices from China malaria control and elimination efforts could be leveraged to fast-track malaria elimination efforts in Africa, which makes it possible that the China's journey of malaria elimination extends to Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines China's geo-economic interest in Africa. China intends to exercise its leverage over both coastal frontiers for trade and defense and its hinterland for rich mineral, metal, and fossil deposits. Furthermore, the debt trap seems to be one of the methods through which China intended to bargain with Africa to bag as much advantage as it could gain. The question that emerges from this critical engagement with China-Africa relations is to look into how the reality of Africa's narrative of development is projected both from outside and within and the contradiction embodied in that projection. China used the narrative of development to set its feet on African soil. This paper discusses China's penetration into Africa by offering interest-free loans and its gradual emergence as a neocolonial power through expanding its network. The method used in the study to establish China's monopoly and interfering streak in African affairs through BRI is the analysis of available data based on which the objectives and the conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment from China in Africa and the growth level in five African countries. Based on the high degrees of persistence observed in the data, we use techniques based on long memory models, and our results indicate that of the five countries examined, namely Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa, only for Nigeria do we find a significant positive relationship between the two variables though under some assumptions, this evidence is also found in the cases of Kenya and South Africa. Several arguments are put forward at the end of the article to justify these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) struggle against severe food insecurity, unemployment and poverty, their heavy reliance on the export of raw materials as sources of revenue to solve these problems has long been put into question. The trade between China and SSA is characterized by China's importing mining and extraction from SSA and SSA's importing manufactured goods from China. We analyse the asymmetric SSAChina trade and focus on how trade policy and productivity shocks will reduce SSA's dependency on raw material export to China. We perform accounting and simulation exercises using the General Equilibrium GTAP model. The main innovation in our study is the inclusion of estimates of different labor productivity growth rates across regions and across sectors in the model. These labor productivity growth estimates show that the gaps between China and SSA especially in manufacturing are huge; ignoring these gaps would have biased any estimation. The other innovation is the simulation that the imports from China would yield some technology spillover on productivity in SSA. We examine several scenarios that include tariff elimination by China, common external tariff in SSA, and free regional trade in SSA. We find that with its current low labor productivity growth rates especially in manufacturing sectors, SSA continues to lose in the global trade, including in its trade with China. More important, manoeuvring room for trade policies is limited. China tariffs on imports from Africa are already low and bringing these tariffs down to zero will lead only to a modest increases in welfare and employment for SSA without altering SSA's dependence on raw material export. Raising the tariffs on manufactured goods from China will reduce SSA's welfare and employment by harming consumers and the agriculture sectors dependent on intermediate goods from China. Increases in labor productivity and technical progress in SSA's manufacturing sectors are welfare improving, but will not alter the high share of mining and extraction export to China unless such increases in productivity are accompanied by a voluntary restriction on these raw material exports. As such a voluntary restriction is being practically hard to apply and sustain, SSA shall continue to liberalize internal markets and pursue higher growth rates in labor productivity to cut the losses in international trade. Our simulations show that freer intra-African trade with small and steady increase in productivity can have significant impacts on welfare and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As archaeological evidence shows, the earliest feather hand fans were not from China, but spread north from Sudan to New Kingdom Egypt. They reached Greece in the 400 s b.c. and Italy a century later. By about a. d. 200, feather fans spread eastward from Africa to China along Indian Ocean trade routes. This spread of feather fans across Afro-Eurasia was accompanied by shifting cultural associations. Early African and Southwest Asian ostrich and peacock feather fans seem to have symbolized rebirth. As imported luxury objects in Greece and Rome (as in the Americas), fans signified wealth and sophistication. But at both ends of the Silk Road, in China and Europe, feather fans also stood in for the suspect foreign immigrant. In Renaissance Europe, fans still represented resurrection and sophistication, but after the Reformation, fans lost their connection to rebirth, and instead developed Orientalist, feminizing connotations that supported powerful colonial and commercial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed renewed interest in Africa and public diplomacy has emerged as the vital tool being used to cultivate these relations. China has been leading in pursuing stronger economic partnership with Africa while middle powers such as Korea are also intensifying engagement with the continent. While previous studies have analyzed the implications of China's activities in Africa on advanced powers, none has examined them from the paradigm of middle powers. This study fills this gap by assessing China's activities in Africa, their economic engagement and implications for Korea's interest in Africa. The analysis is qualitative based on secondary data from various sources and literature. The study shows that China's public diplomacy strategy involves a high degree of innovation and has evolved to encompass new tools and audiences. China has institutionalized a cooperative model that permeates many aspects of governance institutions in Africa, enabling it to strengthen their relations. This could also be helping China to adjust faster leadership transitions in Africa. Whereas the US is still the most influential country in Africa, China is influential in economic policies and has outstripped the US in infrastructure diplomacy. This could be because African policy makers align more with China's economic model than the US' mainstream economics. Chinese aid to Africa has been diversified to social sectors that are more responsive to the needs of Africa. Trade and investment relations between China and Africa have deepened, but so does trade imbalance since 2010. China mainly imports natural resources and raw materials from Africa. But this product portfolio is not different from Korea and the US. China's energetic insertion in Africa using various strategies has significant implications for countries with ambitions in Africa. Korea can achieve its ambitions in Africa by focusing resources in areas it can leverage its core strengths-such as education and vocational training, environmental policy and development cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine how the strategic investment partnership between China and African countries has come to be identified and labeled in the discourse on Sino-African relationships. The emerging narrative is that Chinese investment in Africa is fraught with issues such as labor abuses, risky loans, and imported labor, therefore contributing little to employment generation and local skills development. Nevertheless, we identify good Chinese-financed business outcomes, suggesting that Chinese investments in Africa have positively impacted technology transfer and significantly bridged Africa's infrastructure gap; our estimation points to a high workforce localization rate within Chinese firms, of above 80%. In making explicit how these competing perspectives play out in the form Sinophilia and Sinophobia, we induce an integrative framework which assimilates the two perspectives to delineate the affection/disaffection phenomena characterizing the evolving China-Africa business relationship. We also set out an agenda for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few questions of greater significance in African international relations than China's actions in and engagement with other states. Chinese infrastructure, businesses, and people have blanketed the continent and revolutionized lifestyles, transportation, and political economies. The advantages and detractions of such developments, in turn, have shaped local attitudes. African attitudes towards China, nevertheless, remain largely the subject of conjecture. This article explores the contemporary attitudes of Kenyan university students to China through surveys and contributes empirical data to the literature. Combined with a comparative textual analysis of the main Kenyan newspaper, the article sheds light on largely unknown—but generally assumed—attitudes of Kenyans towards China. The findings question a stereotype of China in Kenya and, by extension, the actions and reactions of other Africans and African states towards it. They also uncover nuanced attitudes that confound the mostly negative Western narrative about China in Africa. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as debt, perceived racism and unfair labour practices, Kenyan university students' attitudes and discourse in the elite media have become less positive. There is, in addition, the broad perception that it is Kenya's leadership that benefits from the relationship and not so much its ordinary citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with China-Africa cooperation in the context of BRI-B3W. The first part illustrates the contrast of some predictions about the development of the 21st century and the reality. The second studies the various fabrications and the facts of China-Africa relations. The third examines the BRI (the Belt and Road Initiative) proposed by Xi Jinping in 2013 and the B3W (Build Back Better World) put forward by Joe Biden in 2021. The fourth explores the African role in the BRI. The fifth studies the concept and practice of “civilization” in relation to world development. The author suggests that the BRI and the B3W should cooperate with each other to make the South, especially the African continent, a beneficiary thus contribute a great deal to the whole world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peace and security were once marginal in Sino-African relations. Recently, however, reflecting China's more proactive role as a global security actor, they have become central. Yet while China's actions mirror this shift, the official China–Africa discourse has not changed. This article, based on fieldwork interviews and discourse analysis of official Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) documents, proposes a theoretically grounded study of China's Africa discourse to account for the role it plays in maintaining continuity through time. It makes a threefold claim. First, while the China–Africa discourse has not been given much attention in the literature, it is crucial to explaining the overall success of China's engagement in the continent. Second, the shift in China's policies towards greater participation in peace and security is not mirrored by changes in the official discourse. Third, and related, this is owing mostly to the successful articulation of the link between the promotion of economic growth and the achievement of stability – the security–development nexus – and to the generally positive reception the discourse has found among African leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been spreading its tentacles across continents particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of Foreign direct investment on the economic and political framework of Africa, using Nigerian as a case study. The foreign direct investments from China to Africa and particularly to Nigeria has not been received well in the pool of public opinion. However, the benefits the investment pool has on the economic and political framework is positive. Yet, researchers, believe that caution should be taken to avoid excessive FDI from China. The method of regression analysis was employed to prove the relationship between FDI inflow and annual GDP. The result showed that there is a strong and significant influence of FDI on GDP and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines automated scraping of Weibo data and a critical discourse analysis to examine the ways in which online anti-African sentiments produce and amplify the interrelations of racial stigma, sexism and homophobia, as well as misinformation about infectious disease on Chinese social media. The paper finds that three nodal points strongly unite the online anti-African discourse: one, 'unrestrained and promiscuous' African men are carrying the viruses (such as AIDS and/or COVID-19); two, 'unchaste' Chinese women (and occasionally gay men) are receiving the virus; three, there is unidirectional transmission of these viruses from Africans to Chinese. Further, our research findings point to complicated and ambiguous relations between online racist sentiments, state censorship, and China-Africa relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brokers have played important roles in the trade of green tea between China and Mali, from the 19th century when tea first came to Mali up to the present. They mediate between tea buyers and sellers, work on their own account, use soft skills, knowledge and networks and make a living from the commission they gain. This article examines the work of brokers in the tea trade, the social constellations in which they are active and the scope of their activity. Based on extensive field research in Mali and China, this article shows how brokers create their own jobs in a dynamic business landscape, which is often delimited by governmental policies, competing entrepreneurial activities and social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Africa–China engagement continues to attract attention from scholars and the media, and is increasingly characterized by controversy and conjecture. This special issue sought to re-examine the engagement against this backdrop, to provide a forum where some important aspects of this engagement might be debated with reference to contemporary research, and to identify some possible avenues for further research. This introductory article thus seeks to reframe the debate with a view to interrogating conventional wisdom and to identify possible new directions for further research. It also provides a short summary of the two papers that follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are we to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on geopolitics and specifically the relations between China and Africa? Is the pandemic a conjunctural event, which will not have lasting impacts, or does it represent a "critical juncture" where the nature of Sino-African relations is recast in significant ways? This paper explores this issue with a focus on African agency in the reproduction and reshaping of Sino-African relations. It argues that while the Belt and Road Initiative is declining in importance in terms of Sino-African engagements, COVID-19 has offered an opportunity for China to increase its soft and "productive-relational" powers on the continent, while reconfiguring some African elites' "strategy of extraversion." As such, the impacts of the pandemic seem to be reinforcing extant trajectories and path dependencies rather than fundamentally reshaping them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]