Speaker: Yan Hairong and Barry Sautman
Date and time: Tuesday 15 September 2026, 6 pm -7.30 pm
Venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
Elites in Western ex-colonial states disparage China as neocolonialist. Scholars have refuted that notion, but have also shown that the Chinese presence abroad is more than just developmentalism. The West’s distorting “China-in-Africa” framework overstates that presence and often focuses on epiphenomenal aspects of it. Based on documentary evidence and field work in two southern African countries, we seek to understand the basis for Chinese capital and Chinese people’s interactions with Africa and Africans. We show that semi-peripheral China’s investment and population in Africa partly fits into the neoliberal world order. It also differs at the margin, however, from the presence of other countries, particularly in challenging local-level monopoly practices.
Date and time: Tuesday 15 September 2026, 6 pm -7.30 pm
Venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
Elites in Western ex-colonial states disparage China as neocolonialist. Scholars have refuted that notion, but have also shown that the Chinese presence abroad is more than just developmentalism. The West’s distorting “China-in-Africa” framework overstates that presence and often focuses on epiphenomenal aspects of it. Based on documentary evidence and field work in two southern African countries, we seek to understand the basis for Chinese capital and Chinese people’s interactions with Africa and Africans. We show that semi-peripheral China’s investment and population in Africa partly fits into the neoliberal world order. It also differs at the margin, however, from the presence of other countries, particularly in challenging local-level monopoly practices.