China and African natural resources

• Main Authors: Alden, Chris, Alves, Ana Cristina
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: French
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Africa's mineral sector; China's energy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105029; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/43546; http://dx.doi.org/10.3917/ltm.657.0028
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

China's energy concerns are playing an increasingly critical role in China's foreign policy as it intensifies its quest for supply sources overseas. Resource rich developing regions have been the main targets in this regard, in particular the African continent. The lion's share of Chinese imports from Africa are commodities. Despite oil being the major import from the continent, imports of other minerals such as cobalt, manganese, copper and iron ore have risen sharply in recent years. Reflecting this, the bulk of Chinese investments in the continent have targeted the resources sector. To gain access to these minerals, China has also loaned billions of dollars to African countries for infrastructure development in exchange for resources (i.e. the so-called 'Angola mode') with no conditionalities attached. China's success in achieving a significant position in the continent's natural resources market in a short period has raised concerns among Africa's traditional development partners, who fear that China's unconditional approach undermines their longstanding efforts to improve governance in the continent. This paper proposes to analyse China's growing engagement in Africa's mineral sector and assess its impact on local resources governance.