Chinese Social Transformation and Its Implications for African Reconstruction

Abstract

Since the start of the twenty-first century, there has been a revitalization of the energies of the African peoples. This revitalization has been shaped by two episodic events at the end of the 20th century. These were the defeat of the apartheid army at Cuito Cuanavale in 1988 and the process of returning the peoples to majority rule in South Africa after 1994. With this revitalization, have come many challenges of the reconstruction African societies. This paper argues that the reconstruction is being driven by the demographic asset of Africa at the current conjuncture and by the demands of this growing population for the fundamentals: food, shelter, clothing, reliable sources of energy, a decent environment and proper health care. This reconstruction process is occurring at a moment of tremendous transformations, essentially, a period of the bio-economy, internet and renewable energy sources. The paper focuses on the two sides of Chinese Social Transformation and African Reconstruction seeking to draw out how the ‘sovereign project’ of China converged with the accelerated revitalization of Africa. The literature on social transformation is very large but there are great differences between the conclusions as to the real foundations of the transformation of Chinese society since 1978. What is significant from the point of view of this paper is that China is new in the field of intense economic relations with Africa. China and Africa are not simply passive rules recipients at the seat of international economics and politics.