AFRICA
China Comes Calling
Mines in Zambia. Tanneries in Ethiopia. Construction projects in South Africa. Tis decade, the world’s fastest-growing economy has made a controversial mark on the world’s least-developed continent. Currently Africa’s largest trading partner and an increasingly significant donor, China has quickly established a major presence across the continent. But misun- derstanding abounds about why, exactly, the dragon has set its sights on Africa.
According to Deborah Brautigam, senior research fellow at IFPRI and pro- fessor at American University’s School of International Service, the answer is more complex than portrayed in most Western media reports—many of which speak of China’s merciless drive for re- sources. Her book Te Dragon’s Gift: Te Real Story of China in Africa works to dispel misconceptions that the country’s motives in Africa are strictly short-term and crassly economic.
“I wanted to challenge the conventional wisdom on this issue,” says Brautigam, who has studied China’s presence in Africa since 1983. “And I was curious myself to find out what was going on with this growing relationship between China and Africa—and analyze what was truth and what was fiction in what I was reading.”
Based on interviews in Beijing and ex- tensive field work in Africa,Te Dragon’s Gift argues that there are diverse reasons why Chinese nongovernmental organiza- tions, volunteers, and private and state- owned companies have flocked to Africa.
“Tere are those who really want to work for development; they are excited about doing something to help Africa. And there are those who are trying to make money and looking for opportuni- ties,” Brautigam says.
She argues that the presence of Chi- na—one of the world’s most populous
Outside a Chinese-built clinic in Freetown, Siera Leone.
© 2007 D. Brautigam
countries—in Africa is just one aspect of its increasing role as a global actor.
“For the first time, China is becoming a donor to multilateral organizations, in- stead of just being a recipient. Tey’re in transition. In terms of business going out, investors going out, immigrants going out—all of this is accelerating.”
Most recently, Brautigam used inter- views, focus groups, and field visits to survey China’s agricultural engagement in Ethiopia and Tanzania. She found that
Tanzania’s risky agricultural investment climate makes the country less attrac- tive to Chinese investors than Ethiopia, where China sponsors several agricul- tural aid programs. At least one Chinese firm is currently scoping out large-scale investment opportunities in the sector.
“China is a moving target,” she said. “Not just economic growth, but institutional changes, value changes, new understand- ings of things—it’s changing all the time.”
– Susan Buzzelli and Ashley St. Tomas 5
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