China's Resource Diplomacy in Africa: Powering Development?

China's enhanced role within the global economy has profound political implications across the world, but takes a particular form in Africa. Over the past few years China has given much aid and technical support to Africa and for the first time since the end of the Cold War African leaders have genuine choices about which aid donors and investors to work with.  But does this translate into development for African countries? How do other donors react? What do 'ordinary' Africans make of it? And how does it impact on wider geopolitics? These pressing questions are addressed through a systematic theorization of the 'China-Africa' relationship. Using detailed case study material collected in Africa the authors paint a picture of gains for some states, but losses for others. Looking beyond the state they see an even more complex picture of evolving social relations between Chinese and Africans and a troubling ecological footprint.

MARCUS POWER Reader in Human Geography at the University of Durham, UK. His research interests include post-socialist transformations in Southern Africa; critical geographies and genealogies of (post)development; post-colonial geographies of Lusophone Africa; vision, visuality and geopolitics and the terms of China-Africa engagement. He is author of Rethinking Development Geographies (Routledge, 2003).
GILES MOHAN Professor of International Development at The Open University, UK. He is a human geographer who studies African governance and the transnational connections to and from Africa, especially migrants. He has published extensively in geography, development studies and African studies journals and has consulted for a range of BBC documentaries on issues of international development.
MAY TAN-MULLINS Assistant Professor in International Relations, at the division of International Studies, University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China. She is also a consultant for the National Bureau of Asian Research, Revenue Watch and Transparency and Accountability Initiative in the United States, working on energy and resources issues.