China’s increasing participation in Africa’s development process during the last three decades: A Development partner or a neo-colonizing power?

Abstract

We investigate if China’s participation in Africa’s development in the last three decades is a development partnership or a neo-colonialism. Starting from the definition of neo-colonialism and its usual manifestations, we compared them to China’s presence in Africa through trade, investments, demography, and politics before concluding that it is much more a development partnership than a neo-colonization. China had no formal colonies in Africa, and its current interventions are being done through its soft power. China's trade partnerships, investments, donations, and infrastructure development in Africa contribute to the development of many African countries, and they have strong political relations with many African countries. Despite such strong relationships between the two partners, many critiques of the Chinese development model in Africa exist. However, there are insufficient reasons to qualify the relationship between China and Africa as a neo-colonial type of partnership. China is the largest trading partner and investor in Africa. Most Africans appreciate China’s influence well and aspire to follow the Chinese development pathways.