China Infrastructural Development and Expansion in Africa; the Rise of a New Global Hegemony

Abstract ―​

Since the presence of China in Africa in 1955, her concept in Africa is important; the frames, legitimates and comprehensible foreign policies in the continent are based on 3 major components of China's role in Africa: The Chinese model for development in Africa, the struggle against the superpowers hegemony in Africa, and China's Third World initiative for elevation into growing and developing economy. There is no doubt that Africa occupied a major place in Chinese foreign policy based on the principle of non-interference and friendly relations in the continent as an altogether new and positive model for external engagement with Africa. Drawing clear distinctions with the superpowers, the European colonial past and Western policies that China believes are based on a paternalistic interference in political affairs which left the continent into a struggle for infrastructural development and liberation struggle. The industrial and infrastructural approach brought by China promotes its presence based on equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefit as a major actor with vital interests in the continent industrial and infrastructural development experience. Originality/Value: - The paper uses a combination of a theoretical literature review from various academic research works to justify Chinese relations and expansion as Africa occupied a central place in Chinese foreign policy and her changing situations while Western observers tend to depict China as a “spoiler” in Africa, whose “insatiable” and “voracious” appetite for mineral resources is nothing more than a neo-colonial grab for raw materials that perpetuates African countries’ underdevelopment, this paper tends to present the pros and cons of this holistic relations. .