China's New Role in Africa and the South is a collection of essays emanating from a conference held in May 2007 on the sidelines of the African Development Bank meeting in Shanghai, China. Fifteen articles elaborate on a comprehensive range of topics relating to China and its relations with the global economy and the South. The authors – scholars and NGO stakeholders – provide thought-provoking arguments from a wide array of perspectives.
There are three broad themes that are generally reflected on in this volume. The introductory theme broadly contextualises China's role globally: namely within multilateral institutions and in relation to civil society. The second theme discusses China's South-South relations outside the ambit of Africa. Finally the third theme brings into focus the China in Africa discourse. Whereas these themes are clearly distinguishable, the structure of the book would have been better complemented if it was developed in a more coherent manner. In addition the variance in length of the individual chapters made the structure of the book and the analysis of the various themes uneven.
Nonetheless, some essays are comprehensive. Certainly the chapter by Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong's provides a compelling argument regarding China's role as a capable benevolent partner to African countries vis-à-vis traditional Western powers. With particular reference to the United States the authors contextualise the criticism usually directed towards China and argue that a similar amount of critique, if not more, can be directed towards the practices of Western countries on the African continent. At times controversial, the chapter represents a refreshing contribution to the debate.
Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa's contribution touches on what is becoming an increasingly parallel topic of interest in China's South-South engagement: Sino-Latin American relations. In the chapter Barbosa focuses mainly on patterns of trade between the two. Similar trends and patterns can be observed between Latin America and China as between China and Africa. A discerning difference, however, is to be found in how each is interpreted and the headline news they make in Western dominated press agencies on the implications this will have for the respective region.
Walden Bello brings important background perspectives to the volume as he analyses the roots of the global crisis of overproduction in the global manufacturing sector. He notes that transnational companies overinvesting in China, domestic Chinese industry and American consumers each form essential parts of the oversupply that is currently affecting the world's markets, not least in Africa.
Keeping in line with Bello’s argument Luk Tak Chuen draws attention to the fact that China is not acting in a vacuum within the international community. On the contrary, many other countries are active in Africa within the context of the neoliberal global economy. For example, India has important interests and projects in Africa, Japan announced in May this year that it would double its low interest loans to Africa, not to mention the economic interests of the United States and the European Union on the continent.
The importance of African and Chinese civil society is discussed in several contributions. Ali Askouri discusses African civil society in relation to China’s activities on the continent, Fu Tao assesses the current state of civil society in China and Peter Bosshard concludes by arguing for the necessity of civil society in the era of the global political economy.
All things considered, the book represents a useful source of information and makes a valuable contribution to the debate and the burgeoning literature on China-Africa relations in two ways. Firstly, it discusses China’s global role in the South through a broadened outlook, highlighting that China de facto is engaging not just with Africa, but with Asia, Latin America, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), the WTO and the UN. Secondly, and most important in terms of the volume’s search for a new perspective, is the diversity of origin amongst the contributors; China, Africa, the "West" as well as other countries of the South. As a result, the volume contains great variation regarding how the contributors have applied their arguments: some are critical towards China, others are relatively flattering and many explore the topic from a more impartial point of view. The book thus sheds light on the fact that China’s engagement with Africa is a more decidedly multifaceted issue. As such, the volume indeed provides important new perspectives on this emerging issue within international relations.
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