ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, the engagements between China and Zambia have come under intense global scrutiny. Like many resources-endowed African countries, the benefits of Chinese involvement in Zambia’s copper industry are often dulled by the painful accounts of anti-Chinese protests by disgruntled and maltreated local workers, and the sporadic but widely reported violence that is associated with such demonstrations. As China’s engagements in Zambia have expanded over the decades, the interactions between the foreign and most particularly local actors have produced features of popular discontent, shaping diverse realities in Zambia’s democratic politics. More specifically, how has dependence on copper mining, how have labor issues, and government actions or other factors in relation to China’s engagements, contributed to contentions and popular discontent? This chapter pursues this puzzle by making a case for China’s varying roles in Zambia’s changing politics and economy, while also highlighting a Chinese approach to dealing with popular discontent by turning to its time-honored foreign policy norms and values in the developing world.
