A Study on Chinese’s Economic Relations with Africa: Case Study Kenya

Abstract

The period between 1945–1989 was marked by Cold war system and three worlds emerged, namely; first world (US and allies like Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and later Japan), second world composed of communist states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet and then the third world which are occupied with the process of development (O’Briens and Williams 2004). However after 1989 to present there are noticeable changes and developments taking place. O’Briens and Williams (2004) argue that the US and other states are busy adjusting themselves to new distribution of power. Economically new parts of the world have opened to capitalist activities and the world is again seeking economic ties with foreigners. There has been rise of regionalism such as European Union (EU) and the like and it has been noticed that China has been peacefully rising up. It is in this respect that in the recent past, China has gained long strides in the global arena and more so China has been investing heavily in Africa. While many African welcome the capital and know-how, others fear that China is stepping in with heavy boots in various cycles. This has raised concerns with the developed nations and big world donors raising concerns whether China would bring hope or problems.Based on such argument therefore, this paper examined the China’s relation with Africa with focus to Kenya. It explored the aspects of diplomatic, trade, investment, Aid and military relations between China and Kenya. It also examined the gains and losses amidst this relation. Data and information that was used to examine such relations was gathered from the existing literature, books, journals, news papers and internet search. It appeared that there is scarcity of the up to date data and information about China-Kenya and much of the information available captured a number of the past years and since this was the information the author could access, it was the same information used to examine the research paper study issue.The paper is aimed at establishing how close to the truth was its study hypothesis, that; ‘China’s relation with Africa aims at achieving tangible developmental results and the conditionality are suitable for African countries’. In this regard, the paper highlighted some important issues. It was noticed that there has been rise in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through manufacturing and service sector in Kenya and the Chinese interest in Kenya have also extended to mining and mineral exploration. However there seems to be very limited joint ownership or local capital in Chinese investments. More so, the employment level in the established firms for both Kenyans and China is very low. However, there are both gains and loses in the relations between the two countries, because in any partnership, there is always a bigger partner.