The dragon's gift: the real story of China in Africa

Abstract

The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in November of 2006 helped to focus more world attention on the state of the African economy, which has seen far too many worries and failures and far too few successes.As the author states "It forced the West to focus on something new: Chinese aid and other forms of economic engagement were sharply on the rise in Africa.China was on a track to become the African continent's largest trading partner, outpacing Great Britain and the United States.Nearly 900 Chinese companies had invested in Africa by then (2002) -in factories and farms, retail shops and oil wells."By the time of the summit, China's accelerated move into Africa was already a decade old, and Dr. Brautigam proves, by her really dazzling knowledge of both Africa and China, that China's presence is never -eversimple or single minded.China has been active in Africa for more than 50 years, and that presence has shifted and evolved in rough congruence with tides running in China itself.Brautigam quite rightly argues that Western observers, especially politicians, media, and academics are prone to lock onto a few simplistic themes which they endlessly quote to each other: