ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the history of China's development aid policy to Africa, which will be divided into four sections covering Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping's respective leaderships, the post-Tiananmen phase and developments from 2005 onwards. It covers the quantitative evaluation of China's development aid. The chapter analyses whether China's aid to Africa represents a threat to the EU's development strategy and political interests in Africa and despite the growing presence of China in the field of African economic development. China's aid to Africa based on the principle of mutual benefit has gained such popularity that Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) President has labelled the Chinese deals as 'exemplary cooperation'. The Cultural Revolution 1966-1976 was a catastrophe for China, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray, which negatively impacted on China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This also meant a decrease in Chinese aid to African countries.
