week 7

Week 7 discussion

Yazan Al-Thibeh

This week’s readings expresses the aspects within the fields of economics, social and political policies, with the relationship between Africa and China. The first article by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza discusses how Africa and China has seen rapid economic growth within recent years. The partnership between the two nations helps elevate trade, foreign investment and growth in technology. For many years Africa and China have gone through many economic, social and political cycles, however these cycles are not homogametic. I liked how he focused on China’s vast interest and involvement in foreign investment. This shows how China is willing to take risks in working alongside governments, instead of forcing other ways to do business or projects. In business, one model that you learn is the dragon tale, where people who invest into a plan that can be executed with an outstanding management team will do wonders. I concur with the author when he expresses that China sees Africa as an investment opportunity due many economic and natural resource opportunities. However I do believe that China’s desire in foreign investments is propelling many African economies.

The second article by Adams Bodomo and Grace Ma, talk about Africans who started businesses in China and how they are treated in the Chinese economy. I really enjoyed this article more than Paul Tiyambe Zeleza article since it gave a different perspective on how Africans are being treated and how their investments are doing in China. This article shows how much of an economic and social impact Africans have within a different nation, and how they are contributing to the Chinese society. The article also talks about how Yiwi and Guangzhou, two of the largest commodity and financial markets in China, and how In Yiwi Africans are treated very well. The city of Guangzhou, many Africans have a hard time living their life, many notice discrimination within the Chinese culture and many Africans have a hard time ruining their work Visa’s. The city of Yiwi accepted Africans within their culture, business relations, and the practice of their own religion.

The third article by Chris Alden and Ana Cristina Alves, explores the shared history of policy making within Africa and how it affects foreign policy. This article made me wonder if China is a neocolonial that tries to be superior to the local citizens in Africa. This article expresses how china is evolving into a super power within the international community and is creating their norms and policies to benefit themselves. This article did not talk about how china is using their power to control many economic and social policies in doing businesses, threatening to seize aid and debt, this is discussed in Zeleza article.

Discussion

Do you believe since there is a finite amount of resources in the world that China is trying to take advantage of African nations, or do you think this is a permutated partnership to help both nations?

With China investing more capital in Africa, how do you see foreign investments and policies change within the next five years in Africa? Do you think in the future that international actors will facilitate and try to implement new policies to better African citizens?