Supervisor: Paula Ganga, Assistant Professor of Political Economy
Student Researcher: Xinyi Chen (Class of 2025)
About the Project:
In recent years, China’s investment and aid to Africa have attracted significant attention. This cooperative relationship not only impacts the economic development of the African continent but also has far-reaching implications for the international landscape. Many scholars have studied how Chinese aid influences the economies, politics, and societies of African countries. However, in the context of the domestic Chinese economic downturn (Posen, 20231), it is increasingly likely there will be a questioning of how this foreign involvement helps regular Chinese citizens, whether this foreign aid comes at a high domestic cost and whether this money could be better invested inside the country. This project aims to explore the domestic benefits of China’s involvement in Africa, namely how domestic Chinese companies benefit from continued Chinese disbursement of aid. We argue that China’s continued foreign involvement will accrue substantial domestic benefits for both private and state owned enterprises […]
This work on Chinese companies has mainly focused on the local operations of these actors in Africa. Yet, an important overlooked category is those Chinese companies that are suppliers of exporting goods to Africa from within China. Their business models, management strategies, and government policy support depend on the continued expansion of aid to Africa. These businesses and their employees represent an important group of interested actors in continued Chinese aid to Africa. Our study aims to fill this research gap, exploring the cases of such enterprises and their trade relations with Africa. With a clear view of how many companies in China are involved in the aid projects taking place across the African continent, this research will shed important light on how dependent the Chinese economy is to the continued existence of these projects. Moreover, by collecting data on the type of companies involved in foreign aid, this research will also uncover any preferential treatment of state-owned versus private companies and the process of participating in foreign aid projects.
The project we propose will not only address an important issue of public policy importance and fill an overlooked gap in the literature, but it will result in a new database of Chinese companies involved in the Chinese presence in Africa, fulfill an important educational and mentorship role for the student involved in this research, as well as become a launchpad for further research in this area at DKU.
- Posen, A. S. (2023). The End of China’s Economic Miracle: How Beijing’s Struggles Could Be an Opportunity for Washington. Foreign Affairs, 102, 118. ↩︎
