China's (Re)-Emerging Relations with Africa: Forging a New Consensus?

Abstract

This article explores China's current engagements in Africa. It does not intend to reproduce the historical literature already evident in the discourse but rather seeks to place the current relationship in context and provide a more balanced view of where the points of convergence and divergence lie which may impinge positively or negatively on these relations. The articles seeks to treat emerging issues such as the possible impact of the economic crisis on China's relations with Africa and the extent to which China's foreign policy has adapted to African political realities. Moreover it assesses the scope to which such developments may advance or arrest the continent's fundamental project of pursuing a sustainable developmental agenda as African governments push for greater integration into the global economy. Finally the article will explore whether China, is indeed, disrupting Africa's relations with its Northern partners and what side effects this may have for the continent's emerging relations with other new actors from the South. In short this article asks one simple question: How should China's contemporary relations with Africa be interpreted as new international and domestic impulses begin to emerge across the continent?