Paper Proposal to “China’s Role in Global and Regional Governance”
The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University (Singapore), March 10-11, 2011

Yawei Liu, Ph. D.
Senior Fellow, Chahar Institute, Beijing, PRC
Director, China Program, The Carter Center, USA

　　The African continent was important to China. In the years when launching revolution was the paramount goal of China Mao Zedong saw Africa as the forefront for the global struggle against Western imperialism.  To try to champion the crusade, China offered economic and healthcare assistance to many African nations even when Chinese people were suffering from shortage of daily necessities.  The aid program paid off not in spreading the revolution but bringing China back into the international community.  In 1971, China, in the words of Mao Zedong, “was carried into the United Nations on the shoulder of African nations.” 

　　When Deng Xiaoping launched his opening up and reform in the late 1970s, the Africa continent did not receive much assistance from China.  The Chinese government was too busy to solicit Western capital and technology to organize any meaningful aid for Africa and used available resources to develop its own economy.

　　In the 21st century, the Africa continent is suddenly back on China’s high priority aid list and massive assistance began to flow into Africa.  At the November 2006 China-Africa Forum, Hu Jintao offered heads of states from more than 50 African nations sweet deals including repudiation of old debts, offering of low interest or no interest loans, trade privileges and other incredibly generous aid packages.  In the four years since the forum, China has moved into Africa in a way that has triggered worldwide concerns.

　　Many accuse China of engaging in new colonialism.  Some criticize China of being deliberately blind to human rights abuses of certain African nations.  Others describe China’s aid program in Africa cynical and mercantilist with a determination to extract natural resources and dump cheap manufactures.

　　How has China’s aid policy toward Africa change over time?  Which agencies are making aid decisions to Africa in China?  What is the true nature of China’s aid program to the African continent?  Can China sustain its policy toward Africa in general and aid policy in particular?  Will China be able to drive out the United States and European nations in Africa because its mission is simple and its aid program has “no strings attached”?  Will this trigger a new kind of East vs. West rivalry/cold war and further destabilize African nations?  How do African people perceive China’s benevolent intrusion and “unselfish” assistance?  Which

　　The paper will try to answer all these questions with an emphasis on if and how China is trying to make Africa a key component to its unprecedented economic growth, increasing international influence and heavy demand for political support on matters of domestic and global significance.       

　　Dr. Anshan Li, a professor of African studies at Peking University, says that Africa is still an open and bleeding wound on the body of the mankind.  The entire world has the duty and responsibility to heal the wound. 

　　The question is whether China is the healer or the robber.