ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses how the People's Republic of China's expansion into African markets has resulted in a plethora of recent analyses dealing mainly, if not exclusively, with the Chinese impact and practices. It concludes with an assessment of how in the context of the continent's centuries of exploitation, the Chinese incursion into the African continent may be viewed as a path to partnership with a new actor, which—claiming to represent the global South—might offer an alternative. Trade between China and Africa, however, continues to reproduce a classical skewed pattern: raw materials on the one side, in exchange for manufactured products on the other side. The global trade and exchange patterns have, despite new actors, not displayed any meaningful structural changes. Institutional quality and sound economic policies remain substantial ingredients for a development paradigm benefiting the majority of people in the affected societies.