Semantron 20 Summer 2020

China, Africa, and globalization

Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya having been funded at the cost of around £3 billion. 6 Without a doubt these projects would have significantly reduced geographical and occupational immobility and hence could improve productivity levels and living standards. If workers were able to move around more easily and also be able to reach work that they would otherwise not be able to reach, then there would be more people becoming employed within these countries. Therefore, this would also stimulate increased growth, as more people would be earning more, and hence would have more disposable income to buy more goods and services. This can be demonstrated on a diagram as a movement of the long-run aggregate supply curve to the right due to the increased quantity of factors of production caused by an increase in African workers being able to work as a result of infrastructure projects, and also a shift in the aggregate demand curve to the right due to increased spending within the economy as people have higher disposable incomes as a result of becoming employed. Additionally, the Chinese state-funded companies working on large projects can end up employing a lot of African workers to help build these projects to help contribute to reducing unemployment that many African countries have. One report suggests that the launch of the Mombasa- Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, a railway line connecting the city of Mombasa and Ken ya’s capital Nairobi, increased freight traffic between the two cities by 209%, 7 which would potentially bring in further money into the economy, as there would be increased exports out of Nairobi to Mombasa, and increased imports fromMombasa to Nairobi which would potentially increase living standards in the short run. A research group at the College of William and Mary has estimated that the total value of China’s completed projects to be $48.61 billion already, 8 showing the full extent of China’s current investment in infrastructure in African countries, not only on railway systems but also on other projects such as various stadiums used in the African cup of nations, a practice which is known as ‘ Stadium Diplomacy ’ . They have been responsible for building around 33 stadiums in 26 African countries, 9 including a new one in Zambia which is set to have 45,000 seats and is currently undergoing construction, and they can benefit the countries economically speaking as it leaves themwith new or improved tourism industries which would encourage employment in those sectors and if it were to attract tourists from abroad then they would be bringing in more money into their economies. However, there is one overriding issue with these infrastructure projects, namely that the Chinese often employ a lot of their own workers who come from China to work the construction jobs that could be fulfilled by African workers. This prevents the quite obvious benefit of increased African employment actually happening in the short run; therefore, these projects could be less beneficial then they might seem at first. As one journalist who saw the construction site of the new stadium in Zambia described the balance of African to Chinese workers, he only saw three African workers ‘ manning the second entranceway ’ , yet saw many ‘ Chinese workers in hard hats walking around the circumference . . . and the exterior ’ . 10 This demonstrates the issue with the imbalance of Chinese workers employed versus African workers, and the lack of training provided to those workers. Training African workers would give them new skills, which would be beneficial for the economy and to the people as it would mean more workers would be becoming employed. 6 Tubei, G. https://www.businessinsider.co.za/here-are-150-million-rand-projects-in-africa-funded-by-china- 2018-9 [Accessed: 19/08/19]. 7 Oirere, S. (2019) KenyaStandard Gauge Railway launch drives freight growth https://www.railjournal.com/freight/kenya-standard-gauge-railway-launch-drives-freight-increase/ [Accessed: 21/08/19]. 8 French, H. (2014) China’s Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa. 9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_diplomacy#Africa [Accessed: 21/08/19] 10 French, H. (2014) China’s Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa.

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