ABSTRACT
Labor issues have been one of the most controversial topics in the China-Africa debate. Some common accusations are “Chinese companies bringing all their own workers to Africa” 2 or, even worse, “sending Chinese prisoners” 3 to the continent, or the poor working conditions offered by Chinese companies. In contrast to these critics is the Chinese discourse of “localization” from the Chinese SOEs and the Chinese authority. Localization (属地化/本土化) , or workforce localization, is defi ned by the Chinese as employing local workers (Beninese or Ghanaian) instead of Chinese staff, either replacing existing Chinese staff or hiring new employees. The Chinese SOE subsidiary directors in Benin and Ghana often say that their enterprises hire many local workers and express their intentions to hire as many locals as possible, to even a level of “complete localization”, that is, all staff will be Africans in the Chinese SOE subsidiaries in the continent. More recently, the worker localization discourse appears in Chinese offi cial communication of the Chinese embassies in Benin and Ghana and the Chinese media in general. How much do these two contrasting discourses – “irresponsible Chinese employers” versus “workforce localization” – refl ect the reality on the ground?
