ABSTRACT
The emerging economic relationship between Africa and China has become a subject of much scholarly debate, the main reasons being: (i) the rapid growth and now signifi cant scale of the relationship in terms of economic exchange and assistance, and seeking to understand the key drivers behind this growth, as well as its environmental and economic implications; (ii) China’s ‘developing country’ status, thus a departure from the usual and long-standing developed country ‘partners’ that African nations have hitherto primarily worked with; (iii) China’s different approaches to the Western powers in forming development partnerships in Africa; (iv) the broader geopolitical implications of China forging closer economic relationships with developing country regions such as Africa, including the challenge posed to Western hegemony.
