How Africans View China's Investment

The second China-Africa summit meeting in Egypt this week, which witnessed a Chinese pledge of US$10 billion in concessional loans to African countries, has again brought to the fore the debate over China's growing profile in the continent.

Is it a boon to Africa as China and many commentators maintain or is it a return to neo-colonial exploitation, as many critics claim? The truth, as usual, may be somewhere between the two.

The debate on China's meteoric rise in Africa has been dominated by two extreme and opposite views. One tends to see China s presence in the continent as generally negative and generating a lot of resentment among Africans. The second view is inclined to see the Chinese presence as largely beneficial providing African states with generous aid in the form of soft loans, major infrastructure programs, but, above all, providing a balance to traditional European and American dominance of the region.

How do Africans see China after all? Based on 163 interviews and over a decade of living in Africa, I shall argue that both views are wrong and right, depending on to what region of Africa and to which group of Africans one is referring.

African elites in general seem to welcome China's new found enthusiasm for the continent. China provides many African governments with generous and large loans, allowing them to develop badly needed infrastructure, expand agriculture, and strengthen their security apparatus. Perhaps most attractive of all, Beijing asks no questions nor imposes any conditionality on such investments, at least for now.