The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 13 | Issue 11 | Number 3 | Mar 16, 2015

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Africa and China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road アフリカと中国21世紀の海のシルクロード

Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim

Abstract: This paper considers Africa's place in

China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The

Maritime Silk Road is a major component of the

"Belt and Road" development framework

announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in

late 2013. While the People's Republic of China

has been actively engaged in Africa since 1960,

t h e M a r i t i m e S i l k R o a d p r o m i s e s a n

intensification of Chinese investment on the

continent, especially in infrastructural projects

including the construction of railways, airports

and deepwater por ts . The paper wi l l

contextualize these development projects in

China's new normal of single-digit growth, and

explain that the "Belt and Road" should be seen

as one of China's new engines of growth. The

paper will conclude with an examination of the

question of whether China is engaged in

neocolonialism in Africa.

Keywords: China, Africa, Development,

Infrastructure, Silk Road

Introduction: Encountering China in Yola

In August 2011 I arrived in Yola, the capital of

Nigeria's Adamawa State, to start work as an

assistant professor at the American University of

Nigeria (AUN). Tiny Yola, which resembles a

large village, is very different from Nigeria's

cosmopolitan megacity Lagos, and Adamawa

State is a region with one of the lowest levels of

development in Nigeria. As such I was very

surprised when I encountered a plethora of

Chinese products in this sleepy corner of Nigeria.

Our faculty houses were equipped with DVD

players, refrigerators, washing machines, water

dispensers, and other consumer electronic

products from Chinese multinational firms like

Haier and Cway. Apart from these consumer

products, Oasis Bakery in our neighborhood was

owned and managed by a hardworking

expatriate from China who had chosen to settle

in Nigeria.

In a seminar I conducted that semester on

Chinese investment in Nigeria, one of the

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

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Nigerian participants observed that AUN's

campus police had purchased Jincheng

motorcycles for its security patrols.1 Another

Nigerian participant recounted his visit to the

athletes' accommodations constructed by China

Civil Engineering Construction Corporation for

the 2003 All-Africa Games in the Nigerian capital

city Abuja:

I have personally visited this Games

Village and in my opinion it is an

a m a z i n g r e f l e c t i o n o f t h e

relationship between China and

Nigeria. The houses were very well

constructed with very nice parking

spaces and a neat environment. The

furnishing of the houses was also

remarkable as there were adire (local

Nigerian fabric) curtains inside. This

il lustrates the good working

relationship between Nigeria and

China as the Chinese are sensitive to

our preferences.2

These instances of the Chinese presence in

Nigeria are part of a vast wave of Chinese

investment and economic engagement in Africa,

a wave which will intensify under China's

development plans for what it has described as

the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The "Belt and Road" and China's New Normal

In September 2013 Chinese President Xi Jinping

announced, during a speech at Nazarbayev

University in Astana, Kazakhstan, the strategic

vision of the Silk Road Economic Belt, a

transcontinental zone of economic development

stretching from China across Central Asia and

the Middle East to Europe, an area that maps

over the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.3

The following month President Xi announced in

a speech to the Indonesian parliament the

strategic vision of the 21st Century Maritime Silk

Road, a zone of economic development that

maps along the key ports and maritime trade

routes of the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.4

Both strategic visions come together under the

"Belt and Road" framework, which offers Chinese

funding, expertise, and industrial technology in

the implementation of massive infrastructural

projects in the geographical areas coming under

the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century

Maritime Silk Road. These projects, ranging from

the construction of airports and railways to the

redevelopment of deepwater ports, represent

important opportunities for Chinese companies

to expand and diversify their businesses by going

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

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global.5 It is not just these Chinese companies

who will benefit from the projects, of course.

China's partner countries can expect to accelerate

their economic development thanks to the

improvements in their infrastructure, without

having to worry about political interference in

their internal affairs.6 The Chinese government

takes a long-term view of the "Belt and Road"

projects. As Foreign Minister Wang Yi mentioned

in a speech in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2015:

"When Premier Li Keqiang visited

the headquarters of African Union

last year, Chairperson of African

Union Commission Ms. Nkosazana

Dlamini Zuma said that African

people cherish a dream that one day

the capitals of all African countries

will be l inked by high-speed

railways. As a good friend of Africa,

China is willing to make efforts to

help African friends realize the

dream. It is a century project that

requires comprehensive planning

and gradual advancement."7

Wang Yi in Nairobi, January 2015.

The "Belt and Road" initiatives come at a key

period for China. After enjoying double digit

GDP growth in the first decade of the 2000s,

China's growth has decelerated to what its

leadership has described as a new normal of

single digit growth.8 At the annual meeting of the

National People's Congress in March 2015,

Premier Li Keqiang announced that the

government has lowered the annual growth

target to 7%.9 This contrasts with previous

decades when China enjoyed an average growth

rate of approximately 10% between 1978 and

2013, with 11.5% between 2003 and 2007. In 2012

and 2013 growth decelerated to 7.7%, ushering in

the new normal of medium-to-high growth and

development, and triggering the need for the

Chinese government to find new engines of

growth.10 The "Belt and Road" framework can be

placed in this context as one of China's new

engines of growth, offering fresh sources of

employment and business opportunities to

enable China to achieve what President Xi has

highlighted in his political theory of the "Four

Comprehensives" as the national goal of a

moderately prosperous society.11 In particular,

the employment opportunities created by the

"Belt and Road" initiatives will be needed for the

15 million students who are expected to graduate

from universities, technical and middle schools

and join the workforce in 2015, as well as the 3

million surplus rural labourers who are also

expected to join these students on the

employment market. 1 2

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Africa and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

The African continent's position on the "Belt and

Road" is located at the far west of the 21st Century

Maritime Silk Road. Historically, the eastern

coast of Africa is remembered as the westernmost

stop on Admiral Zheng He's epic 15th century

voyages across the Indian Ocean. In 2005 there

was great fanfare in the Chinese press when

Mwamaka Sharifu, a Kenyan girl who was

reportedly the descendant of one of Zheng He's

Chinese sailors, received a scholarship from the

Chinese government in commemoration of the

600th anniversary of Zheng He's first voyage

across the Indian Ocean.13 The infrastructural

projects to be undertaken in Africa under the

"Belt and Road" framework include the

development of deepwater ports in coastal cities

including Bizerte, Tunisia; Dakar, Senegal; Dar es

Salaam, Tanzania; Djibouti, Djibouti; Libreville,

Gabon; Maputo, Mozambique; and Tema, Ghana.

These will be key sites of the transcontinental

exchange of manufactured goods and

commodities between Asian and African

economies along the Maritime Silk Road.14 These

ports are also likely to be developed as industrial

hubs , fo l lowing the model of China 's

development of the new Cameroonian deepwater

port of Kribi. While China Harbor Engineering

Company started constructing the new port in

June 2011, the development plan also includes

the creation of a 260 square kilometer industrial

zone, as well as roads and railways connecting

Kribi to major cities in Cameroon, projects which

will be undertaken by other Chinese companies.15

In Kenya, China is constructing a railway

connecting the capital city Nairobi with the port

city of Mombasa. This will eventually be

expanded into a regional rail corridor connecting

Kenya-one of the African gateways to the

Maritime Silk Road-with Uganda, Burundi, and

South Sudan.16

As the Kribi port development project in

Cameroon shows, Chinese firms have been active

in Africa long before the 2013 announcement of

the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. According

to statistics compiled by the State Council of

China in 2013:

China has become Africa's largest

trade partner, and Africa is now

China's second largest overseas

construction project contract market

and the fourth largest investment

destination … Up to now, China has

completed 1,046 projects in Africa,

building 2,233 kilometers of

railways and 3,530 kilometers of

roads, among others, promoting

intra-African trade and helping it

integrate into the global economy.17

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Serve the revolutionary people of the world, 1971.

An early infrastructural project was the TanZam

railway between Tanzania and Zambia, which

was built between October 1970 and June 1975,

and involved not just Chinese financing, but also

the participation of 50,000 Chinese engineers and

laborers, 65 of whom perished during the

arduous construction.18 The beginning of the

engagement of the People's Republic of China

with Africa dates back a decade earlier to 1960,

when China provided an interest-free loan of 100

million RMB to Guinea's newly independent

socialist government for the construction of a

slate of aid projects including factories,

plantations, and paddy fields. Other newly-

decolonized African states received similar aid

packages from China.19 Over the subsequent

decades, China's engagement with Africa

changed in tandem with changes in its domestic

political economy. The rise of China's private

corporations after the economic liberalization of

the 1980s saw a transition from state-owned

enterprises to private businesses in the

implementation of Chinese development projects

overseas.20 Recent examples of such projects

include China Railway Group's Light Railway in

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the first phase of which

was recently completed;2 1 China Railway

Construction Corporation's Abuja-Kaduna

railway in Nigeria, which was completed in

December 2014, and which is the first phase of a

larger railway modernization project connecting

Lagos with Kano;22 and the Lobito-Luau railway

in Angola, also built by China Railway

Construction Corporation, which will eventually

be connected to the Angola-Zambia and the

Tanzania-Zambia railways.23 Likewise, Chinese

engineering firms like China Civil Engineering

Construction Corporation, China Airport

Construction Group Corporation, and China

Harbour Engineering Company are constructing

airports across the continent, including airports

in Angola, Comoros, Djibouti, Gabon, Kenya,

Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, and Togo.24 Apart

from the transportation sector, Chinese

companies are also involved in Africa's energy

sector, including hydropower dams in Ethiopia

and Uganda;25 biogas development in Guinea,

Sudan and Tunisia; and solar and wind power

plants in Ethiopia, Morocco, and South Africa.

Other economic sectors Chinese companies are

actively involved with in Africa include

agriculture, construction, healthcare, mining, and

industrial manufacturing. A recent count

estimates over 2,000 Chinese companies are

engaged across almost every country on the

African continent.26

To finance these and other projects under the

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"Belt and Road" framework, China has created a

number of key financial institutions. In

November 2014, President Xi announced the

creation of a 40 billion USD Silk Road Fund. The

bulk of its financing will come from the Chinese

government, with the remainder from China

Investment Corporation, China Development

Bank Capital Company, and the Export-Import

Bank of China.27 In July 2014, China and its

partners in the so-called BRICS bloc-Brazil,

Russia, India, and South Africa-contributed 100

billion USD to establish the New Development

Bank, an alternative to the U.S.-dominated World

Bank and International Monetary Fund for

emerging economies to raise funds for

infrastructural development.28 China also

established the Asian Infrastructure Investment

Bank in 2014, with other founding members from

across Asia, the Middle East, and other countries

including New Zealand and the United

Kingdom. Like the Silk Road Fund and the New

Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure

Investment Bank offers funding for infrastructure

projects.29 China has also created smaller

investment vehicles to finance infrastructural and

other overseas business projects.30 The deepwater

port development projects listed earlier, for

example, will be partly financed by investment

vehicles set up by China and Thailand.31

The Neocolonial Question

Hillary Clinton in Zambia, June 2011.

While China has cancelled the debts of some of

its crisis-stricken partner countries, or offered

them grants or zero-interest loans to pay for

Chinese development projects,32 most of the loans

issued by Chinese financial institutions have to

be repaid by the recipient countries. In certain

cases, China allows its partners to pay for their

development projects by bartering their local

products, in particular natural resources. China

and a number of African states have had such

countertrade arrangements since the 1980s, and

since then China has received key primary

products including oil, rubber, and minerals as

payment for development loans.33 These deals

involving extraction of natural resources have led

to accusations that China is engaging in

neocolonialism in Africa, as was voiced by U.S.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to

Zambia in June 2011.34 Such criticisms have also

been voiced by a number of African leaders who

are concerned about China's growing economic

clout.35 While popular African perceptions of

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

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China's economic engagement remain generally

positive across the continent,36 positive public

opinion concerning the benefits of Chinese

investment to their local economies are on the

decline.37 Foreign Minister Wang Yi's recent

announcement that Chinese diplomacy in 2015

will focus on building international cooperation

for the "Belt and Road" reflects the government's

sense of urgency,38 especially given a recent

diplomatic setback in Sri Lanka,39 and India's

continued deferral, arising from old suspicions of

what it calls the "string of pearls" geopolitical

threat.40 from accepting China's invitation to

participate in the "Belt and Road."41

The continued acceptance of Chinese investments

over the past five and a half decades by African

states and their people is an important sign that

China's presence in Africa should be seen as that

of a partner in economic development rather

than that of an aspiring neocolonial hegemon.42

In historical context, the criticisms of China's

engagement with Africa in the Western press

today echo Western colonial fears in the 1930s of

Japan's growing influence in Africa.43 A number

of African and Western experts have joined the

public conversation in critiquing the accusations

of neocolonialism voiced by Secretary of State

Clinton and others. The Zambian economist

Dambisa Moyo, for instance, has pointed out that

the empirical evidence of China's activities in

Africa shows that its interests are purely

commercial and that it has no interest in

undermining the political structure, much less

the sovereignty, of its African partners.44 (The key

exception is China's interest in keeping its

partners from offering diplomatic recognition to

Taiwan. A country will break relations with

Beijing should it recognize Taiwan as "China";

but even in this situation Chinese enterprises in

the country have been known to continue

functioning despite the loss of diplomatic

relations.45) The political economist Deborah

Brautigam reminds us that China's swaps of

infrastructure for resources with its African

partners are based on its positive experience with

swapping its own oil for Japanese industrial

technology in the late 1970s. The industrial

infrastructure and technological training thus

received from Japan formed one of the bases for

China's subsequent economic take-off in the

1980s. As such, China sees the s imilar

arrangements it has made with its partner

countries in Africa and elsewhere as similarly

offering mutual benefits for their economic

development.46

While China's overseas investments are certainly

open to scrutiny, it is essential to consider these

in the context of projects from other countries: it

is by no means necessarily true that Chinese

projects offer worse outcomes than those from

the West . 4 7 Indeed, when looked at in

comparative perspective, it is clear that China's

infrastructural investments in particular fill a

development gap in Africa that the West has

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largely ignored, 48 and that China's massive

imports of African commodities have accelerated

African trade and expanded the market for

African exports,49 creating the conditions for the

continent's dramatic recent economic growth.50

Africa's recent rapid growth, which mirrors

China's own economic take-off three decades

earlier, suggests that, like the Chinese enterprises

that came before them, African enterprises, given

the right economic conditions, will be able to

hold their own against competition from Asia

and the West. The implication is that the

neocolonial narrative about China's engagement

with Africa is defeatist in its dire prognosis about

the ability of African enterprises to compete

against Chinese and other multinational

corporations in the global market. Consider the

case of textiles. While the textile industry in some

African economies failed to withstand

competition from China and other global

competitors, the same industry in other African

economies like Kenya's and Madagascar's was

able to meet the international competition and

recover and grow.51 Indeed, the textile industry is

one of the mature industries that the Chinese

government has encouraged to move offshore, to

allow Chinese industry to move up the value

chain, and Chinese entrepreneurs from the textile

and other mature industries have settled and

taken up citizenship in African countries like

Lesotho, further developing the local economies

with their industrial knowledge, and deepening

the commercial and technical know-how of their

local colleagues and employees.52 Such capacity

building can accelerate the movement of African

industries up the value chain, as was the

experience of the mature Chinese enterprises

themselves in the 1990s and 2000s. Africa's

movement up the industrial value chain can

already be seen in the emergence of an

indigenous automobile industry.53 This shows

that, rather than defeatism, optimism is

warranted when projecting the probable

outcomes of China's continued engagement with

Africa.

Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim is a research fellow with

the Longus Institute for Development and

Strategy, and is the author of Cambodia and the

P o l i t i c s o f A e s t h e t i c s

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1135132593/?tag

=theasipacjo0b-20) (Routledge 2013). He received

his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University

of Hawaii at Manoa, and has taught at

Pannasastra University of Cambodia and the

American University of Nigeria.

E m a i l : a l v i n c h @ h a w a i i . e d u

(https://apjjf.org/mailto:alvinch@hawaii.edu).

W e b :

https://manoa-hawaii.academia.edu/AlvinLim

Recommended citation: Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim,

"Africa and China's 21st Century Maritime Silk

Road", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 10,

No. 1, March 16, 2015.

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Notes

1 Joseph Ishaku, "Chinese Products' Presence in

Nigeria: The Case of Motorcycles" (seminar

paper, American University of Nigeria, 2011), 7.

2 Lawrence Osekhale Iriogbe, "China in Africa:

Nigeria as a Case Study" (seminar paper,

American University of Nigeria, 2011), 6.

3 Wu Jiao and Zhang Yunbi, "Xi proposes a 'new

S i l k R o a d ' w i t h C e n t r a l A s i a

(http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-09/0

8/content_16952304.htm)," China Daily,

September 8, 2013, accessed March 12, 2015.

4 Wu Jiao and Zhang Yunbi, "Xi in call for

b u i l d i n g o f n e w ' m a r i t i m e s i l k r o a d

(http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-10/0

4/content_17008940.htm),'" China Daily, October

4, 2013, accessed March 12, 2015.

5 Deborah Brautigam, The Dragon's Gift: The Real

Story of China in Africa (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2009), 103-104. Zhang Yuzhe,

"With New Funds, China Hits a Silk Road Stride

(http://english.caixin.com/2014-12-03/10075841

9.html)," Caixin, December 3, 2014, accessed

March 12, 2015.

6 Shi Ze, "'One Road & One Belt' & New Thinking

With Regard To Concepts And Practice

(http://newparadigm.schillerinstitute.com/medi

a/one-road-and-one-belt-and-new-thinking-

with-regard-to-concepts-and-practice/)," 30th

Anniversary Conference of the Schiller Institute,

October 18, 2014, accessed March 12, 2015.

7 "Wang Yi: China Is Ready to Work for Africa's

D r e a m o f B u i l d i n g

(http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_66330

4/wjbz_663308/activities_663312/t1227709.shtml

)," Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's

Republic of China, January 11, 2015, accessed

March 12, 2015.

8 Kenneth Rapoza, "Double Digits No More,

China & India Govts Want To Grow Slow

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012

/04/10/double-digits-no-more-china-india-

govts-want-to-grow-slow/)," Forbes, April 10,

2012, accessed March 12, 2015.

9 Chen Jia, Dai Tian, Zhao Yinan, "Growth rate

s l o w s , s t r u c t u r a l r e f o r m p r e d i c t e d

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015two

session/2015-03/05/content_19723073.htm),"

China Daily, March 5, 2015, accessed March 12,

2015.

10 "China aims at medium-to-high speed of

growth with twin engines: gov't report

(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-03/0

5/c_134040096.htm)," Xinhua, March 5, 2015,

accessed March 12, 2015.

11 "Xi's 'Four Comprehensives' a strategic

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

15

b l u e p r i n t f o r C h i n a

(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/201

5-02/25/c_127517905.htm)," Xinhua, February 25,

2015, accessed March 12, 2015. Wang Bowen,

"China unswervingly sticks to peaceful

d e v e l o p m e n t u n d e r ' n e w n o r m a l , '

(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-03/0

5/c_134039426.htm)" Xinhua, March 5, 2015,

accessed March 12, 2015.

1 2 "China faces arduous task of ensuring

e m p l o y m e n t

(http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/911130.sht

ml)," Xinhua, March 10, 2015, accessed March 12,

2015.

13 "Is this young Kenyan Chinese descendant?

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005-07/11/content_459090.htm)" China Daily,

July 11, 2005, accessed March 12, 2015.

14 Atul Aneja, "China steps up drive to integrate

A f r i c a w i t h M a r i t i m e S i l k R o a d

(http://www.thehindu.com/news/international

/world/china-steps-up-drive-to-integrate-africa-

with-maritime-silk-road/article6802385.ece)," The

Hindu, January 21, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015.

15 Shannon Tiezzi, "What's It Like to Have China

B u i l d Y o u a P o r t ? A s k C a m e r o o n

(http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/whats-it-like-

to-have-china-build-you-a-port-ask-cameroon/),"

The Diplomat, February 27, 2015, accessed March

12, 2015.

16 Cheng Lu, "Return of maritime Silk Road does

n o t f o r g e t A f r i c a

(http://en.people.cn/business/n/2015/0212/c9

0778-8850090.html)," Xinhua, February 12, 2015,

accessed March 12, 2015.

17 "China-Africa relations: something besides

n a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s

(http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0302/c90780-8855

942.html)," Xinhua, March 2, 2015, accessed

March 12, 2015.

1 8 "Backgrounder: China's major railway

construction projects in Africa, Latin America

(http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2015-02

/27/content_19669180.htm)," Xinhua, 27

February, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015.

19 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 31-34.

20 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 79.

21 "China-funded light rail project puts Ethiopia

o n t r a c k f o r t r a n s f o r m a t i o n

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584.html)," China Radio International, February 8,

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22 Chen Boyuan, "Chinese company completes

N i g e r i a r a i l w a y p r o j e c t

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nt_34207832.htm)," China.org.cn, December 2,

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Completes First Standard Gauge Railway

M o d e r n i z a t i o n P r o j e c t

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

16

(http://www.nta.ng/2014/12/04/nigeria-compl

e t e s - f i r s t - s t a n d a r d - g a u g e - r a i l w a y -

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2015.

23 "Chinese-built railway in Angola open to traffic

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822.html)," Xinhua, February 15, 2015, accessed

March 12, 2015.

24 "China airport construction going global

(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/201

4-12/07/c_133838498.htm)," Xinhua, December 7,

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sign $700m loan for new Khartoum airport

(http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?articl

e53371)," Sudan Tribune, December 17, 2014,

accessed March 12, 2015. "Djibouti starts building

t w o C h i n e s e - f u n d e d a i r p o r t s

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25 Peter Bosshard,"China's Global Dam Builder at

a C r o s s r o a d s

(http://www.japanfocus.org/-Peter-Bosshard/4

243)," The Asia-Pacific Journal 12 (2014), accessed

March 12, 2015.

26 "China-Africa relations." Ronald Ssekandi and

Yuan Qing, "China's investment in infrastructure

key to Afr ica ' s development : experts

(http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0224/c90883-8853

073.html)," Xinhua, February 24, 2015, accessed

March 12, 2015.

27 Zhang Yuzhe, "Gov't Said to Name Three to

S i l k R o a d F u n d L e a d e r s h i p T e a m

(http://english.caixin.com/2015-02-05/10078190

2.html)," Caixin, February 5, 2015, accessed March

12, 2015.

28 Zhang Yuzhe, "With New Funds."

29 "Asian Infrastructure Development Bank to be

o p e r a t i o n a l b y y e a r - e n d

(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2

015-01-02/news/57611692_1_ai ib-as ian-

i n f r a s t r u c t u r e - i n v e s t m e n t - b a n k - b r i c s -

development-bank)," Press Trust of India, January

2, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015. Jamil Anderlini,

Tom Mitchell and George Parker, "UK move to

join AIIB meets mixed response in China

(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c3189416-c965-11

e4-a2d9-00144feab7de.html)," Financial Times,

March 13, 2015, accessed March 14, 2015. "New

Zealand becomes 24th founding member of AIIB

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5-01/05/content_19239131.htm)," China Daily,

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

17

January 5, 2015, accessed March 14, 2015.

30 Zhang Yuzhe, "With New Funds."

31 Brian Eyler, "China's Maritime Silk Road is all

a b o u t A f r i c a

(http://www.eastbysoutheast.com/chinas-marit

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32 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 136-137.

33 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 56.

34 "Clinton Chastises China on Internet, African

' N e w C o l o n i a l i s m

(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

11-06-11/clinton-chastises-china-on-internet-

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35 Lamido Sanusi, "Africa must get real about

C h i n e s e t i e s

(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/562692b0-898c-11

e2-ad3f-00144feabdc0.html)," Financial Times,

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Chin, "China's Challenge in Africa: Avoid Blame

o f N e o - C o l o n i a l i s m

(http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/china%E2%

80%99s-challenge-africa-avoid-blame-neo-

colonialism)," YaleGlobal, 9 July 2014, accessed

March 12, 2015.

36 Pew Research Center, "Chapter 2: China's

I m a g e

(http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/07/14/chapt

er-2-chinas-image/)," Global Opposition to U.S.

Surveillance and Drones, but Limited Harm to

America's Image, July 14, 2014, accessed March 12,

2015.

37 Katie Simmons, "U.S., China compete to woo

A f r i c a

(http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/0

8/04/u-s-china-compete-to-woo-africa/)," Pew

Research Fact Tank, August 4, 2014, accessed

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38 "China's 2015 diplomacy focuses on 'Belt and

R o a d

(http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/910765.sht

ml),'" Xinhua, March 8, 2015, accessed March 12,

2015.

39 Chen Qin and Huang Shan, "Sri Lanka Tells

China It Will Rethink Ties – and a Major Port

P r o j e c t

(http://english.caixin.com/2015-03-10/10078988

3.html)," Caixin, March 10, 2015, accessed March

12, 2015.

40 Shee Poon Kim, "An Anatomy of China's

' S t r i n g o f P e a r l s ' S t r a t e g y

(http://www.biwako.shiga-u.ac.jp/eml/Ronso/

387/Kim.pdf)," The Hikone Ronso 387 (2011),

accessed March 12, 2015. David Tweed, "Modi

Touring Indian Ocean to Keep China's

S u b m a r i n e s a t B a y

(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

15-03-09/modi-tours-indian-ocean-to-keep-

china-and-its-submarines-at-bay)," Bloomberg,

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

18

March 10, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015.

41 "China invites India to join its Maritime Silk

R o a d i n i t i a t i v e

(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2

014-02-14/news/47337341_1_msr-special-

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12, 2015. C. Raja Mohan, "Silk Road Focus:

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42 The growing American military presence in

Africa suggests that the putative hegemon is

indeed not Chinese. See Nick Turse, "The US

Military Has Been 'At War' in Africa on the Sly

F o r Y e a r s

(http://www.thenation.com/article/179324/us-

military-has-been-war-africa-sly-years)," The

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See also Nick Turse, "US Special Forces Are

Operating in More Countries Than You Can

I m a g i n e

(http://www.thenation.com/article/195409/us-

special-forces-are-operating-more-countries-you-

can-imagine)," The Nation, January 20, 2015,

accessed March 12, 2015.

43 Richard Bradshaw and Jim Ransdell, "Japan,

Britain and the Yellow Peril in Africa in the 1930s

(https://apjjf.org/-Jim-Ransdell/3626)," The

Asia-Pacific Journal 9 (2011), accessed March 12,

2015.

44 Dambisa Moyo, Winner Take All: China's Race

for Resources and What It Means for Us (London:

Allen Lane, 2012), 157.

45 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 67-69.

46 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 46-48.

47 Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong, "Gilded

Outside, Shoddy Within: The Human Rights

Watch report on Chinese copper mining in

Zambia (https://apjjf.org/-Yan-Hairong/3668),"

The Asia-Pacific Journal 9 (2011), accessed March

12, 2015.

48 Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong, "Trade,

Investment, Power and the China-in-Africa

D i s c o u r s e

(https://apjjf.org/-Yan-Hairong/3278)," The

Asia-Pacific Journal 9 (2009), accessed March 12,

2015.

49 Dambisa Moyo, "Beijing, a Boon for Africa

(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/opinion

/beijing-a-boon-for-africa.html)," New York Times,

June 27, 2012, accessed March 12, 2015.

5 0 "The Hopeful Continent: Africa Rising

(http://www.economist.com/node/21541015),"

The Economist, December 3, 2011, accessed March

12, 2015. World Bank, Africa Rising: A Tale of

Growth , Inequa l i ty and Grea t Promise

(http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/

2014/04/14/africa-rising-a-tale-of-growth-

APJ | JF 13 | 11 | 3

19

inequality-and-great-promise), April 14, 2014,

accessed March 12, 2015.

51 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 219.

52 Brautigam, Dragon's Gift, 222-223.

53 Farai Gundan, "Made In Africa: Three Cars

Designed And Manufactured In Africa

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/faraigundan/201

5/01/31/made-in-africa-three-cars-designed-

and-manufactured-in-africa/)," Forbes, January

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