Debunking myths about Africa-China relations

• Published date: 24 January 2024
• Publication title: Cape Argus (Cape Town, South Africa)

While some of the myths encompass vested interests filtering into bilateral and multilateral policies to deliberately undermine the growing mutually beneficial economic relations between Africa and China, others are driven by the twin evils of Sinophobia and ingrained racism – a prejudice and fear of the Other, hence it is important to flag them in a bid to lay a better foundation for understanding what is growing into important relations in a complex multilateral context

Despite some improvement in discourses, understanding and appreciation of the transformative character and nurture of bilateral and multilateral relations between Africa and China, particularly on the continent, the quantum of biased malicious public information has not relented, and will probably not do so in the short to medium term.

The overall picture portrayed in hegemonic private media and dominant Western scholarship and policymakers, including in facets of digital international relations and digital diplomacy, the fast emerging sub-disciplines of diplomacy and international relations is characterised by scepticism and negativity steeped in Sinophobia and racism feeding into the unfounded fear of China as a threat to Western hegemony, or what most Western scholars call their system of democracy and international order.

By international order, Western scholars and media mean Western unipolar hegemony in the world under the coercive architecture of the political and economic liberal order globally led and policed by the US and its allies since the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the end of the Cold War and the unilateral rise of the West.

The mix of Sinophobic stereotypes and misconceptions about Africa-China relations also reflects condescending racist attitudes towards African leaders and the people at large, questioning their intellect and agency in their dealings with Chinese partners. While Sinophobia is commonly defined as a fear or hatred of China, Chinese culture and people of Chinese heritage, including its diaspora and, in a broad sense, Asians, it is rooted in racism and is generally reflected in extended stereotypes of Chinese people, Asians and Africans.

And while some of it could be pardoned as emanating from ignorance, it is problematic where it is reflected in the failure to understand critical policies and/or in their deliberate distortion, creating false narratives. Sinophobia, and racism in a broader sense, is fuelled by fear, hatred and resentment, which can be...