China, Africa, and globalization
Charlie Leithead
Africa has been China’s fastest -rising export partner in recent years, with Chinese sales to African countries rising faster than they are to anywhere else. Indeed, research suggests that as many if not more than one million Chinese citizens have arrived on African soil since 2001, 1 and in June 2017 a McKinsey & Company report estimated that there are over 10,000 Chinese firms currently operation in Africa. 2 Many people believe that through globalization into African countries China is securing precious African natural resources to feed their expanding economy (they receive around 1.4 million barrels of crude oil from Africa per day) 3 and are exploiting workers despite creating new infrastructure and employment opportunities within those countries. Thus, it comes as no surprise that many people hold suspicions of Chinese motives, with some questioning as to whether China is colonizing Africa. However, there have been without a doubt many mutual benefits for both the small African countries and China, and in the words of Xi Jinping the current president of China ‘ For decades, China and Africa have treated each other with sincerity and
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friendship ’ , 4 and I believe the majority of Chinese investment has led to economic advancements in the respective countries which they have affected.
Perhaps the most obvious form of involvement in Africa has been through state-funded infrastructure projects of which the Chinese government has spoken about at length during their annual Forums on China Africa Cooperation, attended by 53 out 54 African countries, in which Xi Jinping pledged financing commitments $60 billion to African countries. 5 An example of how this money has been spent in the past are the railway systems in Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, Djibouti, and Nigeria with the Mombasa-Nairobi
1 French, H. Why 1 million Chinese migrants are building a new empire in Africa. https://qz.com/217597/how-a- million-chinese-migrants-are-building-a-new-empire-in-africa/ [Accessed: 09/08/2019]. 2 Mourdoukoutas, P. What Is China Doing In Africa? https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/08/04/china-is-treating-africa-the-same-way- european-colonists-did/#5adba0f4298b [Accessed: 09/08/2019]. 3 Albert, E. China in Africa https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-africa. 4 Jinping, X. China and Rwanda: A Friendship Higher than Mountains. The New Times Rwanda [Accessed: 10/08/2019]. 5 Sun, Y. China’s 2018 financial commitments to Africa: Adjustment and recalibration [Accessed: 21/08/19].
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