SPECIAL SYMPOSIUM ON AFRICA AND CHINA
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
8th-10th April 2010

Africa and China in the 21st Century: The Search for a Mutually Beneficial Relationship

China’s continued thrust into the realms of formidable global power brokers has raised hope and admiration as well as uncertainty and trepidation. Consequently, this painstaking but systematic rise has drawn its fair share of a vibrant debate among established geopolitical experts and post-Berlin Wall students of international affairs. These jitters and apprehensions may be attributed to the fact that many academies, staffed by Cold Warriors, rolled out graduates long resigned to the realization that the emergent post-1989 unipolar world was here to stay, and therefore whose training failed to factor in the possibility of an alternative global power structure, and not in the least the possibility that such a power would rise elsewhere away from the historical dominance of transatlantic paradigms in international affairs. However, by 2005, it had become evident that China’s rise was not only unstoppable, but also irreversible. This thesis by Martin Jacques in the book, When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World, has provoked a healthy debate in Western Academic circles.

Massive investments in health, education, roads and related infrastructure have been matched only by the quantity of raw materials, natural resources and other forms of extractive industries exported to China from African countries. This pre-eminent moment of Africa-China relations was formally launched in the 2006 China-Africa Summit that saw 48 African heads of state and government attend what was the largest international meeting ever to be held in Beijing. It is here that the Chinese sought to clearly rebrand their new relationship with the continent, calling it a ‘win-win situation’ based on ‘mutual respect and common development.’ This relationship has come under scrutiny, praise and critique from diverse constituencies. African publics, economists and civil societies in Africa have been involved in discussing the nature and implications of this renewed relationship. African scholars and researchers have engaged this debate with their own grasp of the implications of the rise of China.
One such engagement is reflected in the collected essays, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Africa and China, edited by Kweku Ampiah and Sanusha Naidu.

This book along with the two publications of Fahamu has sought to open windows of scholarly research on the Chinese engagement with Africa.
There is increasing need for a sustained debate focused on how Africa-China relations can be harnessed for the good of the African peoples in ways that break away from the models of exploitation that have characterized the continent’s relationship with traditional powers and institutions that have – for decades - dominated the economic and political landscape of the continent. At the Africa Initiative of Syracuse University, we recognize the need for this debate to transcend the emerging Sino-phobic scholarship and analyses that conceptualizes Africa-China relations only through the limited lens of exploitation, new imperialism and anti-democracy. Towards this end, the Africa Initiative will host a select group of distinguished scholars to assess and deliberate on the nature and future of Sino-African relations and cooperation.

This special symposium will be held from 8th-10th April 2010 in the main campus of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. The symposium conveniently comes in the wake of one hosted by Fahamu Networks for Social Justice in Nairobi in November 2009 and which focused mainly on the role of the civil society in shaping the contours of Africa relations.

As such we believe that by targeting the voice of progressive intellectuals from North America, China and Africa, the Syracuse University meeting will provide much-needed space to not only further the debate in the United States, but more importantly to carry out such discussion from a perspective that aims to strengthen the relationship for the betterment of the African continent and the People’s Republic of China.

At the start of the FOCAC process, President Jiang Zemin, in his letter of 1999 to heads of states spelt out two main goals:
“How to promote the building of a new international political and economic order so as to safeguard the common interests of developing countries in the 21st century” and
“How to further China-Africa cooperation in trade and economy in the new situation.”
The symposium at Syracuse University seeks to raise several leading questions among them:
1. After ten years, what are the defining characteristics of the new relationship?
2. How can we ensure and evaluate the tenets of ‘sincerity, political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and common development… ’ are realized as encapsulated in Beijing’s official policy on development cooperation especially in the context of the past five years of Africa-China cooperation
3. What kind of scholarly output can break the old realist understanding of the new South-South relationship
4. In light of the breakdown of the Copenhagen summit what are the implications of the FOCAC 2009 target of China-Africa partnership in addressing climate change
5. Can people to people relationships develop at the scholarly level to reflect the spirit of Bandung?
6. Beyond leaders and governments, how can this pre-eminent phase of Sino-African relations be strengthened?
7. How can this cooperation be harnessed while at the same time be weaned of potential negative trends and legacies associated with Africa’s traditional development partners
8. How can Africa and African institutions position themselves for a fruitful engagement with China and Chinese institutions
9. What should be the role of the African Union vis-à-vis individual states and regional economic blocs
10. Can the economic and future political integration of the continent help in formulating a coherent “African Policy Towards China?”
11. How can Africans seize the moment to outmaneuver those international institutions that have tied their relationship with Africans to the foreign policy interests of economic forces that have historically sabotaged the prospects of a continent?
12. How do we distinguish the new Chinese emphasis on “human resources, development and education” from the neo-liberal conceptions of development?
13. What is the impact of the ‘Chinese model’ on democratic transformation in the continent?
14. To what extent is there an authentic ‘Chinese model’ of transformation that Africans can look up to?

Intended Outputs:
1. A publication of select papers
2. Short audio-visual materials from the symposium
3. A working group on Africa-China relations coordinated from Syracuse University but bringing together scholars and practitioners from Africa, China and USA
4. Develop a concrete substantive mutual collaboration between Africa Initiative of Syracuse University and Fahamu Networks on China and other emerging actors in Africa

Sponsors: The Africa Initiative of Syracuse University AND Fahamu Networks for Social Justice
Co-Sponsors: International Relations Program at the Maxwell School. The African Students Union.