China looks at Africa: modernity, morality and hierarchy in 21st century Chinese worldviews

Thesis

This monograph offers a sustained study and theoretical analysis of how Chinese actors in the 21st century imagine Africa and their relations with it. Granted, there is a significant corpus of existing research that examines the actual conduct of China in its relations with Africa. But less has been done to explore how varied actors within China understand Africa, Chinese relations with Africa, and their respective and relative positionalities within the global landscape. Answering these questions not only helps to understand the ideational foundations of China’s relations with Africa, but also offers a window into Chinese actors’ conceptual frameworks on the structure and the constitution of the world. Using qualitative, interpretivist methods, this thesis draws upon more than forty published memoirs and non-fiction works by one-hundred-twenty diplomats and quasi-official practitioners, around one hundred academic articles by Chinese scholars on China-Africa relations, as well as hundreds of social media posts on Weibo by Chinese netizens. This monograph makes the central argument that modernity is a crucial lens through which varied Chinese actors commonly make sense of international hierarchy, and their understandings are further complicated by notions of postcolonial moral ideals. Modernity informs the way in which these actors discursively assign relative positions to China, Africa, and the West (the latter two often understood in homogenous terms). Against this background, China is increasingly imagined as superior and modernized as compared to Africa. On the other hand, postcolonial moral ideals create expectations of natural solidarity between China and Africa, which justify perceptions of the West as morally inferior. This thesis outlines how conceptions of modernity and postcolonial morality shape Chinese views, the ways in which these intersect with racial, gendered and civilisational understandings, and the frictions this also generates.

Authors: Han, Y

• Alternative title: China Looks at Africa
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nrmdpeoq8
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: China; Africa; race; postcolonial morality; modernity; hierarchy
• Subjects: International relations