ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contradictory claims that China is looting Africa and that it is developing the continent. This is so partly because the knowledge people acquire from the discourse on China-Africa relations is a social knowledge that is based on judgment and interpretation in which similar "facts" could sometimes lead to different conclusions. For Sino-optimists, China's re-entry into Africa is to be celebrated. Africa stands to gain much from closer ties with China. The tone of Sino-optimistic literature on Sino-African relations is laudatory. In 2009, China became top exporter of goods and services in the world, with a 9.6 per cent share of the global trade, surpassing the United States and Japan. The third relevant element in China's attractiveness to ordinary Africans emerges from sheer human solidarity or empathy. Twenty years from now, or, possibly even sooner, Sino-pragmatism will have outlived its purpose for, by then, either Sino-optimism or Sino-pessimism will have been vindicated.
