The African bill: Chinese struggles with development assistance
Miriam Driessen
Anthropology Today. 31(1), p. 3–7, 2015
Abstract
Chinese diplomats and politicians have sought to underline the mutually beneficial and cordial nature of Chinese engagement with Africa through the use of phrases such as ‘win-win cooperation’ (huying huli hezuo) and ‘friendly collaboration’ (youhao hezuo). Avoiding the use of concepts such as ‘aid’, which suggest a hierarchical relationship between giver and receiver, they have argued that Chinese initiatives on the African continent are fundamentally different from Western development assistance. An anthropological glance at the situation on the ground however, shows that these statements are not only a part of political rhetoric, but that they also mask the similarities between Chinese and Western involvement with development in Africa.
