Two very different rundowns of Africa’s relationship with China emerged over the past week. On the one side of the Pacific, the analyst Jordan Link published a paper framed as a list of five things U.S. policymakers should know about the relationship. On the other, Li Anshan, the deity of Chinese Africa studies, provided his own list of factors.
The fact that the latter took place mere kilometers from a booming Africa-focused trade summit that saw the signing of $23 billion in deals, is significant, to say the least. In many ways, it proved Link’s points that China’s relationship with Africa is not simply extractive and that it creates jobs, albeit low-level ones.
