China’s increasing presence in Africa has been the result of a gradual buildup in economic relations since the turn of the century. Although this relationship has been the focus of much negative publicity in the western media, the fact remains that China has surpassed the United States as the largest trading partner of Africa (as a continent), threatening the American economic hegemony. Much of this relationship has focused on natural resources, as China looks abroad to disparate sources to fuel its domestic expansion. Notably, as with most other nations not the United States, China has run a trade surplus with Africa, reinforcing the imbalanced nature of China’s trade relationship with the United States. Given that China’s expanding influence continues to subsidize American consumption costs, American political concern appears to originate from an imperial perspective.
Chinese-African relations have accelerated in a beneficial manner due to friendly relations, common interests, and similar future goals. Chinese total FDI in Africa rose to over 15 billion dollars at the end of 2012. Despite Africa’s status as a developing continent, there appears to be a plethora of opportunities to capitalize on.
1. Does the US still have “economic hegemony” – which of course begs for definition.
2. On the international relations side, China is not part of (or Chinese resource firms aren’t conforming to) sanctions against certain governments. There’s also a level of comfort with paying bribes to get ones way, which is a definite no-no for US firms and fairly serious as a constraint for EU firms.
3. Well, is this “China” or is this “firms with their HQ in China”? The same proviso applies to others engaged in FDI. To what extent is nation of origin relevant.