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The China–Africa relationship has received increased interest over the past few decades as scholars critically examine the challenge that China, in its quest for a closer strategic partnership with Africa, poses to the norms governing the neoliberal world order (NLWO). One crucial aspect of this is international aid, and how Chinese aid to Africa differs from Western aid. This paper argues that Chinese aid reduces the power of traditional aid donors to shape the development route of African countries. This new development finance ultimately breaks the monopoly of Western aid to decide how poor countries in the global 'South' develop. In doing so, the Sino–African aid relationship is challenging the current world order as it offers African states the possibility to decouple (or delink) themselves from the global economy. By challenging assumed neoliberal economic development fundamentals, this relationship, if harnessed correctly by African leaders, can pose longer-term ideological questions around the very set of ideas that underpin development itself, while enabling African states the policy space needed to pursue more sustainable development from an Afro-centric perspective. It is this possibility to delink, due to changing ideological fundamentals concerning economic development, that is the challenge China and Africa pose to the NLWO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section includes four papers to examine the ups and downs of the relationship between Taiwan and China. While both sides of the Taiwan Strait have different political systems, these studies show that domestic politics play a central role in explaining the oscillation of the cross-Strait relationship. The findings provide evidence of the interaction between domestic and external factors. Leaders in Beijing and Taipei therefore need to take heed of the internal forces of both sides of the Taiwan Strait in addressing their contentious relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As primary drivers of global growth, China and India as Asian giants are on the path to reforming their higher education systems to drive innovation. This paper based on both primary and secondary data sources investigates how India's democratic political leadership has facilitated higher education reform for fostering innovation while underlining key differences in the policy approach of the Chinese leadership. Findings identify the areas of reform for India and also reveal that epistemic boundaries between India and China are beginning to blur so far as right-wing ideological regimentation is concerned, with possible implications for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been engaged with Africa since the 1956. Following the domestic economic reforms of 1978, politically and ideologically motivated engagement gave way to economically and commercially driven cooperation. Successive waves of reforms in China have made the engagement more economically and commercially driven. Initially China’s engagement with Africa in general was dominated by China’s state-owned enterprises. More recently private enterprises have entered the arena.In discussions on China–Africa, China is often presented as a single actor. In fact, there are many ‘Chinas’ in Africa. More nuanced literature has disaggregated ‘China’ in Africa into different actors. With regard to China’s economic cooperation, the literature has either focused on its state-owned enterprises or the impacts of its commercial relations on local African business and populations. This paper intends to contribute to the growing literature on Chinese private enterprises in Africa. It provides a characterization of Chinese private companies in Kampala, Uganda, based on a recent survey of 42 Chinese enterprises there. It will present the data, analysis and stories of how and when they came, what problems they encountered and how these were solved based on the in-depth interviews that were carried out. The paper will show that many of these companies are relatively small, recent entrants in Uganda, motivated by the potential of the markets and increasingly facing problems with the authorities concerning their visas and work permits. It will be concluded that life for these private enterprises in Uganda is becoming gradually more difficult. There will be a shaking out of the companies that do not provide positive contributions to the local economy and society in general. This leaves many, especially smaller, Chinese private entrepreneurs uncertain about their future in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new framework to analyze social contentions in China from the perspectives of contention motives and mobilization channels, explains why traditional forms of contention do not undermine the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) rule, and identifies anti-system contention as a distinctive form of contention that poses the greatest challenge to the CCP's rule. Through analysis of political opportunity structures and mobilization mechanisms that allowed anti-system contentions to rise, this paper argues that since such contentions mainly consist of value-oriented social actors mobilized via informal channels, it would require the Chinese regime to adapt to a more targeted and coordinated model of repression to address the new challenges. The paper further provides empirical case studies to show the effectiveness of the regime's adaptive repression and shows that anti-system contentions in China face their own hurdle to develop into more prominent contentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and India have for quite some time been participants in African politics and have employed persuasive strategies to make their presence felt in that continent. The main objective of their current participation and presence in Africa is to exploit energy resources and establish greater political connections there. The Chinese strategy is to be generous with loans and financial aid; the Indian strategy has been to employ populist and democratic measures, highlighting its historical and cultural connections with Africa. Pursuing stronger bilateral relations with African countries has been the principal medium of their continental reach. But bilateral bonding has been taking a backseat recently in their approach vis-à-vis multilateral relations, for which institutional and organisational bonding is being used as the prime medium. South Africa is a conspicuous illustration of this approach. Both China and India share strong bilateral ties with South Africa, which is the frontier state for their outreach to Africa. Their engagements with that country through multilateral forums like the AU, BRICS, BASIC and IBSA exhibit how multilateralism is becoming for them a leading approach relative to bilateralism. Their objective, besides enriching and influencing their bilateral understanding with that country, is to achieve their global ambitions and objectives in tandem with the African continent on a whole. This paper examines the instrumental approach that the two countries employ towards Africa where multilateralism is becoming a prime channel of contact over bilateralism. To what extent this approach has advanced their strategic interests in Africa commercially and politically also needs analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, especially through orientalist writings, Eastern or Asian political systems were seen as inherently authoritarian and as the antithesis of the West or Western political systems. Although there is some truth to this, there are aspects of Asian politics and culture which are very much in keeping with Western understandings of political liberalism and this paper tries to focus on some of these similarities. The paper tries to look into the question, ‘Is there is a distinct style of Asian democracy’? The paper argues that there are aspects of Asian culture and politics which sit comfortably with Western notions of liberalism and other aspects which do not. However, for the aspects which do not, these have a lot to do with politicians using aspects of the Asian political tradition, like acceptance of hierarchy and respect for authority, to consolidate their own position when their power base lacks political legitimacy. Before making an assessment of the political systems in Asia, one also has to look at specificities and the particular historical, geographical and sociological context each country is grounded in. This paper has a special focus on South and East Asia and thus makes use of a comparative approach, whilst trying to answer its research question. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a preliminary reflection on China’s domestic development and its aid presence in Africa. “Development” had its day before the 1970s but then encountered de-constructive and re-constructive critics in the field of Development Anthropology. China’s conceptualization of development has not only drawn a lot from Western development discourse but also evolved with its own features, which deserve a critical reflection in terms of an “elusive discourse” and the “practical pursuit of welfare”, a seemingly paradoxical dichotomy. It follows with China’s foreign assistance or aid presence in Africa, which, the author holds, is imprinted with China’s development practice concepts and illustrated by a case of Chinese development aid in Ethiopia. The paper eventually discusses the would-be roles of Chinese anthropologists, who have been surprisingly absent in recent years, in contrast to Western academia’s intellectual tradition of widely reflecting development issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who are 'the Chinese' in Africa? Why are they there? As China's engagement with African countries intensifies, and the size of the Chinese population in Africa increases, these questions have elicited substantial attention. Many attempts to provide answers, especially in the media and popular publications, are problematically based on uninformed stereotypes and undifferentiated notions of 'the Chinese', by implication a homogeneous group lacking contextualisation. Seeking to address such characterisations, this paper uses the digital communications of present and prospective Chinese migrants to provide a more nuanced picture of the motivations, preoccupations and migration experiences of private entrepreneurs and state-owned enterprise workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the documentary series Faces of Africa, broadcast on CGTN Africa, the African branch of China Global Television Network (CGTN, formerly known as CCTV International) since 2012. Using in-depth interviews and content analysis, we canvas the layers of supervision, censorship, agency and cross-cultural collaboration that lead to a creative dialogue between filmmakers and Chinese commissioning producers. We argue that, compared to news programs on both CGTN and other global networks, the documentary series allows a more positive and humane portrayal of African people. However, given that CGTN often engages non-Chinese filmmakers and seeks to emulate global production values to attract non-Chinese viewers, the extent to which CGTN’s documentaries on Africa contrast to those of other global networks remains a question for further debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a two-dimensional concept of Sinophobia (恐中) to study Taiwanese attitudes toward mainland China as well as their sources and political consequences. Taiwanese skepticism toward China has grown in recent years, concomitant with increasing cross-Strait interactions and exchanges. This has been widely characterized as a “Sinophobia syndrome.” To investigate this phenomenon, we divide Sinophobia into two types—“group-difference-driven” and “risk-driven”—and investigate whether the two types exert different effects on individual preferences regarding policies involving China. Multivariate analyses show that a model that distinguishes between the two types of Sinophobia fits the data very well and that the risk-driven attitude influences decisions on issues related to China more strongly than does the group-difference-driven attitude. This finding suggests that although perceptions of group difference may prompt fears of China, it is not a powerful determinant of policy preferences. Additional analyses reveal that the risk-driven attitude also influences other policy-relevant attitudes and behavior, including voting in the 2012 presidential election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghana, like other African countries, suffers a huge infrastructure gap. In recent times China has become a major bilateral source of investment in Ghana’s energy infrastructure. This article examines the strategic importance of Chinese infrastructure investment in Ghana’s energy sector in recent times. The study is based on field research conducted by the author in Ghana and on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with Ghanaian policy makers, journalists, civil society organizations, academics and individuals. Additional data were collected on some key projects China has been sponsoring in the energy sector. The paper suggests that China has become a key partner in Ghana’s development efforts as its provision of infrastructural projects soars and its involvement in Ghana’s economy grows. Yet China’s engagement presents a complex dynamic given its dual role as financier of energy infrastructure and at the same time a competitor or seeker of Ghana’s oil and other natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant literature has explored the effects of foreign aid on armed conflicts and state repression, but not on public demonstrations. This article compares distribution patterns of Chinese and World Bank-funded projects and public demonstrations in Cameroon, receiving predominantly Chinese official finance, and Uganda, receiving predominantly traditional, Western aid. Distributive patterns suggest negative and positive associations between Chinese and traditional official finance on the one hand and public demonstrations on the other. However, with respect to anti-project demonstrations specifically, I find through fieldwork interviews in Cameroon that Chinese-funded projects are more prone to anti-project demonstrations owing to less stringent risk management standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on archival and ethnographic research, this paper examines the introduction, nature and implementation of a recent anti-immigrant act in Guangdong province and its implications in the regional, national and international contexts. Chinese state regulation of undocumented African migrants is analyzed with regard to the legal production of African ‘illegality’ in the Guangdong context; the contradictions in the implementation of the Guangdong Act and its unintended consequences; and the discrepancy between anti-African immigrant campaign at the local level and pro-African political ideology at the national and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conventional wisdom holds that democratic governments listen to their populations, while authoritarian governments do not. This paper questions the extent to which this dynamic applies in cases of government scandals, using the illustrative cases of China and Kenya. We expect democratic countries with free media to be responsive and authoritarian states to ignore public pressure. Counter to this expectation, however, authoritarian China is more responsive to public pressure to clean up scandals than democratic Kenya. Using case studies and quantitative analysis, we argue that while democracy and free media are important for government responsiveness to scandal, they are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions. We assert that political will, state capacity to respond and high public expectations for state action are also necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As China’s economic and political presence in Africa increases, so does the need for its government to maintain a favorable image with African publics. Borrowing theories of soft power diplomacy and language planning, this paper analyzes, from the perspectives of African and Chinese policymakers, the impact of the Confucius Institutes on higher education in Africa and its intersections with language planning and cultural diplomacy. An empirical case study at the University of Nairobi Confucius Institute shows that policymakers and administrators anticipate that a competent group of Kenyans with Mandarin language skills will be able to engage with Chinese people and Chinese-owned companies on the ground in Kenya. However, Chinese diplomats are more concerned with China’s image and achieving its political and economic interests in Kenya than with effective cultural exchange and language instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the level of natural environment disclosure (NED) in the year ending 2007 annual reports of Chinese-listed companies. Using a simplified NED index that accommodates a developing country setting, the results show a low level of NED. Only 2% of sampled companies make disclosures for all eight basic environmental issues in the NED index. Larger companies and resource companies disclose significantly more NED. Clearly there is scope for Chinese regulators and entities to improve the reporting of natural environmental issues. Strategies are explored to consider how NED might be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses a case-study approach to discuss the effects of Chinese economic engagement on three dimensions of human capital development: local employment, training and skill building, and knowledge and technology transfer. The study findings suggests that Chinese economic engagement can and does contribute to human capital development in Africa; however, this is dependent on certain sectoral factors and contextual conditions. This study advances a working hypothesis that the human capital development impact of Chinese economic engagement will vary across countries and sectors of the African economy. This working hypothesis seeks to guide further research towards developing a theoretical framework for the study of Chinese economic engagement in Africa and its effects on human capital development. The article also identifies research areas that should be further explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of Chinese economic engagement in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bagamoyo Port Project (BPP) was meant to have set in motion the development of East Africa's largest port. Yet, with the advent of former President John P. Magufuli to power in October 2015, the BPP has led a chequered existence. This article explores the dynamics behind the stalled talks over the BPP by emphasising Magufuli's penchant for developmentalism, nationalism and authoritarianism ultimately as a political strategy designed to mask his vulnerable electoral standing within the party and with the electorate. The renegotiations over the BPP served as an ideal opportunity in this regard to shore up his base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has imposed the National Security Law which has resulted in Hong Kong formally entering into a phase of movement abeyance. By analysing 3377 posts on LIHKG Internet forum, this article re-explores the online protest attitude during this movement abeyance. The findings indicate that content creators are more attentive in regard to criticizing the legislation and pro-Beijing figures, followed by seeking international support and calling for unity. Users are more 'participative' in calling for mutual destruction between the authorities and people, initiating mutual support and seeking emigration. This study provides new perspectives on the study of movement abeyance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the nature of the legal system in Hong Kong and its process of autocratisation under the Chinese sovereign. This article suggests that, in colonial and post-colonial times, Hong Kong's legal system follows the global trend of autocratic legalism that empowers the executive branch to use laws and courts to achieve the government's political goals. With the recent imposition of the national security law, the political and legal systems of Hong Kong are further autocratised beneath the veil of securitisation, facilitating China's authoritarian governance in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the emerging patterns of contemporary media-based engagements between China and Africa and argues, after an examination of current media systems in both China and Africa, that, despite expressed worries to the contrary, because of reasons spanning from history to geo-politics, the Chinese model of media system as it currently stands does not stand a chance, at least in the foreseeable future, to be exported to Africa – a continent whose current media landscape is, and will arguably remain, significantly Western-oriented. The article concludes with a call for scholars to exercise analytical restraint in their examination of the potential impacts of recent China–Africa media relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1990s, China has formalized its short-term foreign aid training for foreign officials and technological personnel. This type of training often lasts for 21 days and participants from invited countries arrive in China for a period of condensed study, with all fees covered by the Chinese government. By the end of 2009, China had organized more than 4000 short-term training programs for over 120,000 personnel from more than 50 countries. Along with the establishment of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and the constructional needs of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has gradually increased the export of its cultural products in foreign aid training. Surprisingly, such national-scale training is largely omitted from current scholarly research. Employing the "fragmented authoritarianism" model, we look at the administrative structure of China's foreign aid training and provide rudimentary research into the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore the determinants of China-ROK relations during the period 1993–2018, employing event data and statistical analysis. The analysis found that China's trade dependence on ROK, and vice versa, had a positive effect on China-ROK relations. The relations were also positively affected by China's economic development. In contrast, the relations were negatively affected as China's population aged and while conservative administrations governed ROK. The empirical findings of this article provide essential insights, identifying the factors that promote or hinder the development of cooperative China-ROK relations, suggesting guidelines to policymakers on both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why did a would-be recognized nuclear state oppose nonproliferation for two decades, but then change its position in 1984? Based on extensive fieldwork in Beijing where the author conducted 20 interviews with high-profile Chinese government and military officials, ambassadors of disarmament, and nuclear and astronautic scientists, this article argues that China openly opposed nonproliferation to give its nascent nuclear program time to achieve a retaliatory capability. Once this goal was fulfilled in the mid-1980s, China began accepting nonproliferation norms. While China's fervent opposition seemed ideological in a revolutionary era, it was indeed a rational behavior in pursuit of security interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recently Chinese investment in the USA has grown exponentially, it has not flowed equally among the US states. Controlling for popular explanations in the foreign direct investment literature, we carry out subnational analysis to assess the determinants of Chinese investment in the USA. Using a panel dataset for all states from 2006 to 2016, we find that Chinese firms are more attracted to states where Republican governors hold office. Republican-governed states particularly attract greenfield investments from Chinese firms. However, we also find that US national security concerns and Chinese goals appear to affect investment flows in high-technology states, limiting the role of partisanship. Our results indicate that it is too soon to dismiss the importance of politics on foreign direct investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contends that Zimbabwe's agency in its engagement with China has been limited and at best circumscribed. This owes to factors such as indifference by state authorities to cooperation with civil society actors in negotiating with Chinese actors, the desperation of the The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front regime in the face of isolation by erstwhile partners as well as the opacity and secrecy that characterizes significant areas of the Zimbabwe–China relationship. The pressing need for critical institutions such as parliament to play independent oversight roles as well as the creation of space for civil society watchdog functions are highlighted as key enablers if Zimbabwean agency is to generate positive gains from the country's engagement with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes the point that African states with significant strategic resources and democratic governance systems bargain better in economic and development assistance engagements with China and other partners. In democratic African states, non-state actors play critical complementary roles to the state, leading to multi-faceted forms of African agency. For non-democratic states, a significant limiting factor in their agency is the lack of working relationships between the state and non-state actors. Concomitantly, such states find themselves with weak bargaining and negotiating capacities. If African agency is to be assertive, then state and non-state actors should work together when engaging external partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statutes and policy documents, as well as open-ended interviews in Zhejiang, China, were used to identify key aspects of rural land law reforms in China to help develop the national economy. It has been observed that despite its positive effect on general rural economic development such development is compromised by extensive corruption that harms peasants’ interests. Peasants face new forms of exploitation by local governments and businesses, as well as environmental damage caused by over-exploitation of land and resources that becomes a serious hurdle for sustainable development in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comparative analysis of the political economy of Chinese and Indian economic engagement strategies in Nigeria. It argues that although China is becoming increasingly prominent in Nigeria partly because of its state-led economic engagement strategy, India’s private sector-led engagement strategy chimes with Nigeria’s neoliberal economic reforms. However, the article maintains even though both Chinese and Indian strategies are not mutually exclusive to either of the two giants in the pursuit of their interests on the continent, African leaders and policymakers need to develop more strategic engagement plans in their dealings with China and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa’s interaction with China is beginning to be marked tellingly by Chinese architectural inscriptions on the African cityscape which need to be deconstructed. The furore in the African press and academia that greeted the building and handing over by China of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa makes such an interrogation imperative. This study will attempt to offer some understanding of this nascent phenomenon using the Accra cityscape as an exemplary point of reference. In this regard this work seeks to locate the meaning of fortifications within contemporary global and local discourses on power, architecture, symbols, interests and international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) group of states as a new geopolitical power bloc has received substantial coverage in the media. South Africa’s inclusion in the group has been particularly controversial, and media attention tended to focus on the country’s relationship with China against the backdrop of the BRICS alignment. The media industry itself has also been a part of global movements of people and capital. This article seeks to establish how this relationship has been represented in the South African media, and to explore the attitudes of senior journalists and editors towards South Africa’s position within the changing global geopolitical landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates how perceptions of China in Mozambican civil society are affected by entrepreneurial activity and bilateral cooperation between China and Mozambique – real, imagined, visible and legal as well as clandestine and illegal in the agricultural and forestry sectors. The research problem concerns how discourse on Chinese investors is formed in Mozambique. Two questions are posed. How does Mozambican civil society perceive their room to maneuver at a time of Chinese growing economic interest and ‘return’ to Africa? What views exist on the policy space for the national government? Using qualitative ethnographic interviews to answer these overarching questions about expanding/contracting maneuvering space, this article explains how Mozambique’s largest social group – peasants – the National Association of Small Farmers (UNAC) and other societal actors perceive Chinese investors. Informed by theoretical debates on civil society, the article argues that coinciding with China’s large-scale return to Africa, an already tense dynamic between civil society and the state is picking up speed. It is argued that this phenomenon is likely to have more to do with African governments accruing more power and policy space than through direct impact of Chinese economic activity on African social life. However, to avoid negative discourse formation, China and host governments need to become more open on and transparent about bilateral agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the authors conduct focused case studies on Zambia and Ghana to investigate the increasingly diverse popular reactions to Chinese engagement throughout the region of sub-Saharan Africa. In this effort they challenge the existing binary exploitation/opportunity paradigm through which growing Chinese engagement in sub-Saharan Africa is often analyzed. Instead, they propose an alternative framework, which centers less on the positive or nefarious nature of Chinese involvement and more on the institutional structures of African regimes. As opposed to closed autocracies and consolidated multiparty democracies, fluid transitional states create opportunities for the appearance of anti-Chinese populist movements akin to Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front in Zambia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is to analyze the impact of Chinese enterprises on the local employment practices in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Based on surveys of over 100 Chinese and local companies and extensive interviews with managers and policy-makers in both countries made from July to December 2007,the study aims not only to depict the current employment practices of Chinese companies in Africa, but also to analyze the factors which affect the localization of employment. Two major patterns, bulldozer-type and locomotive-type, are identified and their implications for the local communities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpretations of history have been a source of tension in East Asia but usually involve Japan and the Second World War. Yet, in the past ten years, another controversy has been brewing over history, this time between South Korea and China over claims to 'ownership' of an ancient kingdom. This article is a case study that examines how states utilize reinterpretations of history for current and future strategic goals. The result has been a dispute that has resembled a security dilemma where China's initial actions, deemed to be largely defensive by Beijing, were perceived in Seoul as offensive, provoking a counter-response that has in turn, alarmed China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]