Is Southeast Asian experience relevant for Sino-African relations?

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile economic and geo-political considerations might continue to underpin China's diplomacy in Africa, China's changing identity and international behaviours in the future would make it difficult to precisely predict which of them would be central and how African countries should react under the circumstances. But, we can gain helpful clues about the parameters of desirable course of action for Africa by looking at Southeast Asia. This article has two inter-related parts. The first part focuses on the foreign policies of Southeast Asian countries towards China to show how Africa could incorporate some of the lessons into Sino-African relations. The second part zooms in on the remarkable economic transformation in Southeast Asia to see what Africa could learn from the experience.