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Africa and China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim
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Abstract

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This paper considers Africa's place in China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road is a major component of the “Belt and Road” development framework announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013. While the People's Republic of China has been actively engaged in Africa since 1960, the Maritime Silk Road promises an intensification of Chinese investment on the continent, especially in infrastructural projects including the construction of railways, airports and deepwater ports. The paper will contextualize these development projects in China's new normal of single-digit growth, and explain that the “Belt and Road” should be seen as one of China's new engines of growth. The paper will conclude with an examination of the question of whether China is engaged in neocolonialism in Africa.

Keywords

ChinaAfricaDevelopmentInfrastructureSilk Road
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 11 , March 2015 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2015

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