Asymmetry as a Perpetual Pattern? Reconsidering Sub-Saharan Africa-China Economic Relationships

The economic relationships between Sub-Saharan Africa and China have intensified spectacularly since the end of the twentieth century, with China becoming the region's largest trade partner. Georgetown’s Africa-China Initiative and Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues host Alice Nicole Sindzingre to present her work the dynamics of China’s economic ties to the region. While China’s relationships display unique characteristics, they also share commonalities with Sub-Saharan Africa's ties to previous partners, particularly their asymmetry. During the first half of the twentieth century, African economies were shaped by the fundamental asymmetry of the open colonial economy model, characterized by the export of primary commodities and the import of manufactured goods from colonial powers. This asymmetry persisted after independence through the conditionalities required by international financial institutions and the inherent imbalance between creditors and debtors. China, therefore, does not appear to disrupt the asymmetric pattern of Sub-Saharan Africa's external economic relationships.

This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Africa-China Initiative and Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues.

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Alice Nicole Sindzingre is research associate at the CEPN (Paris-North Economics Centre), University Sorbonne-Paris-North and at the Centre for African and Development Studies (CEsA) in the University of Lisbon’s Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG). Sindzingre spent the majority of her career with the French public agency for research, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Paris), as a senior research fellow. She has also spent two decades as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.