Fast Company has a six-part China in Africa series. The tone oscillates between cutesy and alarmist, and occasionally regresses into Heart of Darkness metaphors, but offers some choice bits of data.
Here’s one of the most telling graphs:
The Chinese spike after 2000 is expected. The U.S. spike is news to me. Could that be AGOA?
Meantime, here’s what I mean by the alarmist, cutesy tone:
There are already more Chinese living in Nigeria than there were Britons during the height of the empire. From state-owned and state-linked corporations to small entrepreneurs, the Chinese are cutting a swath across the continent. As many as 1 million Chinese citizens are circulating here. Each megaproject announced by China’s government creates collateral economies and population monuments, like the ripples of a stone skimmed across a lake.
Beijing declared 2006 the “Year of Africa,” and China’s leaders have made one Bono-like tour after another. No other major power has shown the same interest or muscle, or the sheer ability to cozy up to African leaders. And unlike America’s faltering effort in Iraq, the Chinese ain’t spreading democracy, folks. They’re there to get what they need to feed the machine. The phenomenon even has a name on the ground in the sub-Sahara: the Great Chinese Takeout.
I’ve never heard anyone refer to the “Takeout”. Sounds like something obnoxious said at ex-pat bars. But cut out the junk and there’s useful information there.
HT: Chris Albon
Update: See the latest here.
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Sir Francis Galton predicted and encouraged the Chinese to move to Africa in 1873. He was clearly a man well ahead of his time:
The pressure of population in China is enormous, and its outflow is great and increasing. There is no lack of material for a suitable immigration into Africa. I do not say that it would be possible at any moment to persuade communities of men and women from Southern China to establish themselves in Africa; but I am assured, by excellent authorities, that occasions of political disturbances frequently arise when it would be practicable to do so by the promise of a free, or nearly free, grant of land. The Chinese have a land hunger, as well as a love for petty traffic, and they would find a field in which to gratify both of these tastes on the East African Coast. There are many Chinese capitalists resident in foreign parts who might speculate in such a system and warmly encourage it.
http://galton.org/letters/africa-for-chinese/AfricaForTheChinese.htm
But China’s trade with Africa isn’t as smooth as all the hype. My favorite article on China in Africa is from the last Foreign Policy issue:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/users/login.php?story_id=4259&URL=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4259
From the graph it seems that the American trade actually decreased in the last couple of years.
Mr. Blattman
China is Africa is actually my research topic for my BA at UChicago. The “Takeout strategy” is something real and rather dangerous for Africa. It literally means take anything at the lowest price. No strings attached. This strategy started in 2003. I will begin publishing more about this “marriage by convenience” on my African Politics portal, http://codrinarsene.com, in the days to come. There’s a lot to talk about so I’ll divide the topic by areas of interest and methods of investment.
In the meanwhile, I think you will enjoy my initial op-ed on Chinese investment in Africa, one that can describe what I’d call a “pre-thesis” (it’s not designed to be an academic thesis but it contains my argument in it).
http://codrinarsene.com/2008/06/chinese-investment-in-africa/
Are you sure that’s not a stacked line graph and US trade is pretty stagnant?
Which American spike??? I can’t see it.
Overly simplistic, but much of the picture fits this equation:
(Nigeria + Angola) x oil = spike
http://reportweb.usitc.gov/africa/by_country_all.jsp
The commodity price spike is fairly recent, and the slope barely changes from 2002 onwards. I think there’s another story.
the chart is in nominal dollars. part of the increase at least is due to the rise in commodity prices.