What Is The Economic And Financial Impact From China On African Nations

• Should Africa be wary of China’s continued investment across the continent? Who stands to benefit from this arrangement, and who stands to suffer?

To conclude this essay, Africa and China were very different in ways such as ruling style and religion, but also very similar when it came to family groups and trade. China and Africa both were great countries in terms of success and trade. Religion and government, ruling style, family groups, and trade were the main points of each

In 2008, the Global Financial Crisis broke out; both the American economy and the economy in the West suffered a hard blow. However, a big economy system in the East emerged unexpectedly. China is now able to challenge the America’s decades-long dominant position in economic area. Started during the middle of 1990s, China’s manufacturing industry developed rapidly that billions of exports were floating out, and China was given the title of “the world’s factory”(BBC). By the end of 2010, China with a GDP of $5.8 trillion, surpassed Japan’s GDP of $5.48 trillion, became the world’s second largest economy system (BBC). China also exceeded Japan became America’s largest foreign securities holder. Since then, China has been seen as the US’s

The large cash injection would then create a “greasing the gears effect” and allow for the jumpstart of economic development. Between the years of 1948 and 1952 the U.S. granted $13 billion to revamp the European economy (Dambisa, 2009: 35). This particular method achieved great success in post-World War II Europe and was known as the Marshall Plan. Due to its effective and unquestionable success in this era, the model was applied to economic development in Africa with the confidence that the same outstanding results would ensue. However, the application of the Marshall Plan to Africa is problematic for three reasons. One, the Marshall Plan had a rigid duration period of five years while, the concessional loans and grants to Africa over the last 50 years have been unending (Dambisa, 2009: 36). Two, European institutions were already in place to receive the aid efficiently and effectively. In Africa, however, these same institutions are either non-existent or grossly ineffective due to corruption (Dambisa, 2009: 37). The vast amounts of corruption have been heavily documented. Mobutu Sese Seko, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997, for example, stole an equivalent of U.S. 5 billion dollars from his people (Dambisa, 2009: 48). However, even the less corrupt rulers of many African countries had few options as to what to invest the aid money on. Consequently, the bulk concessional aid goes directly into consumption without a variety of investment outlets. This process does not solve the problem but instead, allows for the cycle to continue. Lastly, three, the money from the Marshal had specific targets to repair physical infrastructure such as, roads, communications, sewage, factories, and electric systems (Dambisa, 2009: 37) In Africa today, the scope of the

Africa is an extremely vast land comprised of unimaginable wealth in natural resources, and an even richer history. Sadly its exiguous population, whom many believe to be the oldest in the world, is completely impoverished, underdeveloped and marred with limited and corrupt governance. The people of Africa have been the victims of cultural rape time and time again-by Arab slave traders, adventurous European explores who found that the African people are worth more than gold and forced them to pay with their soul, exploited by colonial “do-gooders”and ravaged by self-serving neighbors, just to name a few. Strategies of Western nations to help bring salvation to the African people from earth’s torture and misery, always seemed to fail. Therefore it’s hard to believe anyone in Africa had any hope left in them at all. For a good majority of African people China’s entry and immersion into their land couldn’t have come fast enough, yet there were many others, foreign and domestic whom only harbored suspicion, and doubt regarding their new colonizers and for good reason, history has not been kind. This essay will first explore the driving forces behind China’s immersion into Africa, next I will delve into explaining the differences in how Western nations and China are handling African problems. Next I will discuss the pros and cons of Chinas neo-colonization and conclude the essay with why I believe China is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing denying imperialistic objectives.

The major actors involved in the Chinese challenge include the US government, the Chinese Government, US and Chinese businesses, and the American Citizens. When analyzing the hierarchy of goals for the Chinese government, it is important to note that the Chinese Communist Party is not democratically elected. Their mandate to govern has been based on China’s strong economic performance. Above all else, it is crucial for the Chinese government to maintain its economic success. 29% of China’s GDP is composed of exports of goods and services.

For a country that is so forgotten by on the international scene, from past to present nearly every global superpower has attempted to carve out a piece of the continent for themselves. For much of the 19th century Africa stripped apart from the major European powers of Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal. While much of the influences of these countries have dwindled since Africa’s independence in 1960, Africa is now faced with an onslaught of big business in the form of Chinese workers determined to tap into the numerous abundance that the country holds. In China’s Second Continent, author Howard French dives into the lives and accounts of some of those determined to forge a new empire out of the continent.

Ghana is gaining money from trading with China. They have gained $1.4 billion and 86.7 of their resources are going to China. Ghana has a lot of poverty, but also many places that are rich. Based on the ABC-Clio Solutions, China is 22.3% of the import partners. Imperialism in Ghana is different because some of the Chinese workers in Ghana are given negative attitudes and Cui Shoujun spent 3 months there investigating the workers. There are negative attitudes towards Chinese investment. In fact, views here are sharply divided. Ghanaian academics and government mostly welcome Chinese investment, believing it drives economic growth on the continent. But opponents point to negative factors such as political motivations, poor working conditions and a lack of respect for human rights, and this view is often expressed in the media. China is represented as not playing by the rules of the game and damaging Ghana’s economic

The growth in the developing nation’s economy over the past 3 decades was heavily dependent on its low cost advantage compared to those of other countries. During this period of growth, foreign companies flocked to China to set up production facilities and factories to capitalize on this cost advantage. Raw materials are shipped to China, where factory workers build the final products and export them out to various countries (Wassener 2014).

As opposed to most western countries, China has proven vital to Africa economically based on the characteristics of the Africa –China relationship. China’s relationship with Africa is symbiotic in nature. As Africa gains, china gains too (Alden, 2009). Africa provides China with raw materials like minerals, agricultural products, tourist attraction sites and many more. In return, most African nations have been subjected to massive development in infrastructure as well as acquisition of funds to develop other areas of their respective economies.

Chinese financial injections have been supporting economies of many African countries in recent years. Chinese business enterprises created new working positions, helped to improve infrastructure, brought new technologies and also cheap products which could African people afford more then the ones exported from Europe or USA. However, later it appeared that China’s increasing influence doesn’t lead African countries only to prosperity and better life but started to cause problems. Nowadays, there are many questions whether Chinese expansion to Africa has positive or negative impact, especially in terms of respecting human and worker’s rights, environmental issues, protection of local labor markets and constantly blooming

    However, China scores very poorly on the global ranking of corrupted, or corruption-susceptible countries. They have increased in the past few years, and are currently sitting at a score of 40. This has made many cry out for government transparency, and independent oversight of operations. China officials have stated that they are going to be proactive on stifling corruption, and catching “tigers and flies,” or big and small corrupted players, in all levels of government.

While relations with China are not in themselves a recent phenomenon, the extensive amount of trade that the two partake in is. Actually, the affiliation between China and Africa stretches back centuries. Some scholars try to establish the starting point based on “the discovery of ancient Chinese ceramics on the east coast of Africa, or to the trading ties begun under the Song dynasty” (Raine 13). Trying to trace ties back this far is important in increasing a sense of loyalty. After all, people tend to have stronger feelings of fidelity towards someone they have known for years, as compared to someone they have just met. Another frequently cited encounter is when the Chinese explorer Zheng He “reached the east coast of Africa where…Zheng came, saw and never conquered…[leaving only a legacy] of trade, stimulating a local market for Chinese silk and porcelain” (Raine 13). This incident is important in further establishing solidarity between the two nations. China refers to this history to prove “it has interacted commercially without further agenda and without detriment to Africa” (Raine 14). It uses this point to relate to Africa – they are both Third World nations that have faced oppression from the First World, and therefore need to stick together.

South Africa, unlike Zimbabwe, has a more mature and solid political system. Therefore, China has been more prudent in its relation with that country (Taylor 22). In the past, South African leaders were highly critical of the “Chinese-style communism” and “Maoism” which was spreading in South Africa calling for a total rejection of the country. However, China still got involved in the conflicts in Pretoria in 1973 as well as in the struggle against apartheid in order to build their relationship with South Africa (Taylor 135-139). While China was pushing for democratization in South Africa, it was

As current Chinese policies towards Sino-African cooperation give tacit consent to humanitarian misconduct of Chinese entities and indiscriminately upper-level cooperation with some authoritarian governments, such a politically unsustainable strategy jeopardizes not only the reputation of Chinese companies but also the national image of China overseas. China’s long-term stance in Africa calls for a reform on China’s African policies.