中非交往再讨论 Beyond Infrastructure and Aid | Open to Public

Dr. Isaac Odoom

丨Abstract

My talk will focus on how African communities respond to Chinese engagements in artisanal small-scale mining sector. It will highlight ways in which local communities negotiate, collaborate, resist, or adapt to the presence of Chinese actors. Examples from Ghana and other African countries will be used to show how these interactions affect local decision-making on governance of extractive sector, people-to-people engagements and the broader relationship between African nations and China.

Afa’anwi Che

丨Abstract

Studies in International Relations on the security implications of foreign aid often concentrate on state security. However, both traditional Western and emerging non-Western donors aim for broader human security, not just state security. This disconnect between sustainable development security goals and the focus of security studies in International Relations creates a gap for empirical research on the human security impacts of foreign aid. Drawing on a recent research project that involved regression analysis and fieldwork in a Central African country, this talk evaluates the consequences of Chinese aid on violent crime and its implications for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, which aims to promote peaceful societies.

丨Abstract

Much of the burgeoning research interest around Chinese state capitalism, particularly Chinese economic engagement with African countries, conflates almost all Chinese financial flows as “FDI” or “investment”. However, the way these terms are commonly used does not meet the actual definition of either term, and many of these Chinese financial flows do not qualify as such. FDI refers to transactions that allow for control and management of the assets over the long term with the main risk borne by investors, whereas much of these financial flows come as “lending” in the form of policy bank loans and other forms of finance where the borrowing government bears the risk. To illustrate this point, we demonstrate that many published articles conflate FDI or investment with lending (such as infrastructure finance) in their datasets. When using more accurate datasets,we observe a strong positive correlation between Chinese FDI and GDP growth, where a 100% increase in Chinese FDI is associated with an 86% increase in GDP growth. Conversely, we also observe a negative correlation between Chinese lending/generic "investment" and GDP, where a 100% increase in these variables is associated with a 3% decrease in GDP.

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