Criticism of neo-colonialism: clarification of Sino-African cooperation and its implication to the west

ABSTRACT

This paper examines whether the claims regarding the nature of the Sino-African relations can be qualified or categorised as a neo-colonialism approach. Additionally, the paper analyses the Western perception and implication towards the Sino-African geopolitical cooperation and clarifies whether China is taking advantage of the weak African states in the name of South–South cooperation or playing the role of a contemporary proxy of the old colonial system and re-partitioning Africa. The relation between China and Africa simultaneously presents both challenges and opportunities for either of them. This study argues that the criticism that China is invading the continent and practicing neo-colonialism is just a speculation or Sino-phobia. In fact, the Chinese have no gene in their blood to invade Africa and it is crystal clear that unlike China, the Western world has had an influential history in the African continent. The African government and their societies have the ability to address the issues of Sino-African relations. This paper additionally provides a theoretical analysis of China’s enthusiastic involvement and contribution to the international aid operations and its presence and contribution in Africa.     

我国对最不发达国家经贸关系的新战略及政策

在中国加入世界贸易组织十周年之际,本文通过对比中国、美国以及欧盟与最不发达国家间的贸易商品结构,总结及分析了我国与最不发达国家经贸关系新发展及存在的问题和原因,提出应加快制定和实施对最不发达国家经贸新战略及政策。     

China and India’s economic relations with African Countries – neo-colonialism eastern style?

A significant feature of globalisation is the advent of Chinese and Indian firms as overseas investors. Investments by these two countries though not large in volume have grown apace and given a new lease of life to writings on foreign direct investment. Most of these studies including the statistical studies on the determinants of these investments replicate the conclusions of studies on foreign investment in general. Although not large in volume investments of Chinese and Indian firms in natural resource extraction industries, including oil in African countries, have reignited the controversies on the contribution of foreign investment to development. This paper reviews the contribution of these studies and argues that a fresh perspective is required to analyse both the determinants and impact of foreign investment by China and India on the host economies. Their contribution to the development of the African countries may be much more substantial than that of investments by the developed countries mostly because of their experience and awareness of development issues.     

The global permutations of the Western publication regime

This article introduces the concept of the ‘publication regime’ into the current discourse on academia. This allows for a much deeper understanding of how publishing conglomerates and appointment and promotion procedures in Western universities are increasingly interlocked. It then turns to the global permutations of that regime as it is currently disseminated to other parts of the world. Using empirical examples drawn primarily from the field of tourism studies, we examine the problems engendered by the introduction of the regime’s appointment and promotion procedures of early career academic staff in universities in the emerging world regions. We specify the auxiliary mechanisms intended to ameliorate these problems, and draw attention to the neo-colonial implications of the disciplining process which these mechanisms are introducing into the academic life of the universities in the emerging regions. We argue that, as the Western publication regime is becoming increasingly globalized, local intellectual voices tend to be silenced by the regime’s growing hegemony, and call for the integration of non-Western perspectives into the framework of the publication regime.