China’s Resource Diplomacy in Africa: Powering Development?

348 Pages·2012·4.26 MB·English

by  Marcus Power

International Political Economy Series
Series Editor:
Timothy M. Shaw , Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
and Emeritus Professor, University of London, UK
Titles include :
Leslie Elliott Armijo (e ditor )
FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION AND DEMOCRACY IN EMERGING MARKETS
Robert Boardman
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NATURE
Environmental Debates and the Social Sciences
Jörn Brömmelhörster and Wolf-Christian Paes ( editors)
THE MILITARY AS AN ECONOMIC ACTOR
Soldiers in Business
Stuart S. Brown ( editor)
TRANSNATIONAL TRANSFERS AND GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
Chang Kyung-Sup, Ben Fine and Linda Weiss (editors)
DEVELOPMENTAL POLITICS IN TRANSITION
The Neoliberal Era and Beyond
Gerard Clarke and Michael Jennings ( editor)
DEVELOPMENT, CIVIL SOCIETY AND FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS
Bridging the Sacred and the Secular
Gordon Crawford
FOREIGN AID AND POLITICAL REFORM
A Comparative Analysis of Democracy Assistance and Political Conditionality
Meric S. Gertler and David A. Wolfe
INNOVATION AND SOCIAL LEARNING
Institutional Adaptation in an Era of Technological Change
Anne Marie Goetz and Rob Jenkins
REINVENTING ACCOUNTABILITY
Making Democracy Work for the Poor
Andrea Goldstein
MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES FROM EMERGING ECONOMIES
Composition, Conceptualization and Direction in the Global Economy
Iain Hardie
FINANCIALIZATION AND GOVERNMENT BORROWING CAPACITY IN
EMERGING MARKETS
Jomo K.S. and Shyamala Nagaraj (e ditors )
GLOBALIZATION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT
José Carlos Marques, and Peter Utting ( editors)
BUSINESS, POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY
Implications for Inclusive Development
S. Javed Maswood
THE SOUTH IN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REGIMES
Whose Globalization?
John Minns
THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENTALISM
The Midas States of Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan
Matthew C. Murray and Carole Pateman (e ditors)
BASIC INCOME AROUND THE WORLD
Horizons of Reform
Philip Nel
THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Marcus Power, Giles Mohan and May Tan-Mullins
CHINA’S RESOURCE DIPLOMACY IN AFRICA
Powering Development?
Pia Riggirozzi
ADVANCING GOVERNANCE IN THE SOUTH
What Are the Roles for International Financial Institutions in Developing States?
Eunice N. Sahle
WORLD ORDERS, DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION
Suzana Sawyer and Edmund Terence Gomez ( editors)
THE POLITICS OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION
Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations and the State
Matthew A. Schnurr and Larry A. Swatuk (editors)
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, NATURAL RESOURCES AND SOCIAL
CONFLICT
Adam Sneyd
GOVERNING COTTON
Globalization and Poverty in Africa
Peter Utting, Shahra Razavi and Rebecca Varghese Buchholz ( editors)
THE GLOBAL CRISIS AND TRANSFORMATIVE SOCIAL CHANGE
William Vlcek
OFFSHORE FINANCE AND SMALL STATES
Sovereignty, Size and Money
International Political Economy Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71708–0 hardcover
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71110–1 paperback
( outside North America only )
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
China’s Resource
Diplomacy in Africa
Powering Development?
Marcus Power
Professor of Human Geography, University of Durham, UK
Giles Mohan
Professor of International Development, The Open University, UK
and
May Tan-Mullins
Associate Professor in International Relations,
University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
palgrave
macmillan
© Marcus Power, Giles Mohan and May Tan-Mullins 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-22912-9
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-31049-4 ISBN 978-1-137-03366-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137033666
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
For Conor Power, Isaac Mohan, Hannah Mohan
and Kyla Meredith Stewart
Contents
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgements xiv
List of Abbreviations x v
1 Introduction: Mediating China–Africa 1
Introduction: the geopolitics of representation 1
Postcolonial geopolitical economy 10
The political economy of development, globalization
and international relations 1 0
Enclaves and surgical colonialism? 1 4
States matter 1 7
Neo-liberalization, African agency and the environment 18
Methodological concerns 2 1
Book structure 2 3
2 Contextualizing China–Africa Relations 2 6
Introduction: a critical genealogy of China–Africa relations 2 6
China in Africa, Africa in China: initial encounters 29
The ‘Overseas Chinese’: migration to Africa and
the Chinese diaspora 32
From ‘Afro-Asian Solidarity’ to ‘South–South’ cooperation 3 6
China’s aid projects in Africa 4 3
The Tazara Railway (1967–75) 48
China and Africa’s ‘lost decade’ 5 0
China in Angola 5 4
Conclusions: constructing a ‘history in common’ 58
3 Chinese Policies and Their Implications in Africa 62
Introduction 6 2
The post-millennium mechanisms of China–Africa diplomacy 64
Differential impacts of Chinese policy in Angola and Ghana 77
Opportunities and challenges 82
FOCAC: lack of a formal permanent institution 83
Lack of coordination 8 3
vii
viii Contents
Sustainability, quality and type of projects 87
Conclusion 87
4 Towards a Chinese ‘Socialist Market Economy’ 8 8
Introduction: China’s economic ‘miracle’ 88
Embracing the market: state socialism and
the crisis of accumulation 92
China’s SOEs and the ‘go out’ strategy 100
The transnational spaces of China’s economic development 1 10
Neo-liberalism and China: a ‘loose hug’ or
an ‘intimate embrace’? 1 16
Conclusions: China as Africa’s ‘economic role model’ 123
5 Evolving Aid Diplomacy in Africa 127
Introduction: aid, Africa and development 1 27
China’s aid ‘offensive’ and the ‘established’ donors 1 28
Histories and relationships 128
Logics, modalities and conditionalities 132
Chinese aid in comparative perspective 139
Chinese aid in practice: forms, continuities
and transformations 141
Contemporary development relations
in Angola and Ghana 141
Donor responses 151
At the aid regime level 152
At the country level 1 55
Conclusion 158
6 Domestic Governance, Regime Stability and
African Civil Society 160
Introduction: governance dilemmas 1 60
Making sense of the African state 161
China’s channels of engagement with Africa 164
The politics of hybridity and extroversion 167
Beyond elites: migration, social relations
and micro-politics 171
Multiple flows and communities 172
Identity politics, political engagement and shadowy ties 1 76
Integration/separation 176
Popular responses and civil society reactions 178
Civil society responses 181
Conclusion 1 88
Contents ix
7 The Environmental Implications of China’s Rise in Africa 1 91
Introduction 1 91
Political ecology: understanding power relations
in the environment sector 194
Changing domestic discourses and the
internationalization of China’s environmental governance 1 95
Chinese involvement in Africa’s resource sectors 200
The differential impacts of Chinese enterprises on
the environment 205
Illegal activities 2 07
Roles of multi-stakeholders in global
environmental governance 209
Conclusion: globalizing China’s environmental
responsibilities 216
8 The Geopolitics of China–Africa Engagement 2 21
Introduction: China’s oil diplomacy and ‘soft power’ 221
The new ‘scramble for Africa’ 2 27
Disaggregating Chinese foreign policy:
the diversity of ‘actors’ 233
Recent shifts in Chinese foreign policy 2 42
China as a ‘responsible’ great power:
peacekeeping and security cooperation 250
Conclusion: a ‘critical geopolitics’ of China–Africa relations 2 55
9 Changing Contexts and the Future of
China–Africa Relations 2 60
Introduction 260
Current and emerging patterns of engagement 2 61
China, Africa and theories of development 265
Future engagements: globalizing Africa–China relations 2 68
Notes 2 73
Bibliography 279
Index 323
Tables
3.1 A reas of cooperation listed in the China–Africa
White Paper 6 6
3.2 S ummary aims of FOCAC action plans 6 9
3.3 P rojects invested in by the CADFund 7 4
3.4 F ollow-up committee of FOCAC 84
5.1 Summary of Chinese aid in Ghana 1 48
x