Paper short abstract:

The importance of African domestic dynamics in Sino-African relations is gaining momentum.For long torn between state,society and the international,Africa responds to China’s advent with a more confident African Way of carrying out int’l relations through assertive negotiation of its role in the world

Paper long abstract:

While China's state-centric pragmatism does not allow for significant challenges to its state apparatus, namely from civil society actors, in the past few years China has increasingly acknowledged the importance of enhancing relations beyond state-to-state level when it comes to its engagement with African countries. However, within this China-led development scenario, it is not clear to what extent Africans are contributing to raising priority concerns. This paper shows that on a continent where formal and informal institutions have been shaped, re-shaped, contested and challenged by external actors, and where the political space is the result of negotiations between the state, society, and the international, African responses to China's assertion of uniqueness, mainly characterized by economic interests and political non-interference, demonstrate how important it has become to avoid the forced application of known concepts to potentially new domestic and international dynamics. In countries where there is a reasonable degree of economic and socio-political freedom, Africans, confronted by lack of conditionalities, may have found new confidence in expressing their views. The research shows that not only socio-political and economic rights and freedoms have become entrenched in contemporary African cultures, but also that they can co-exist, without being in contrast, with the economic development China is helping to unfold. Should domestic pressures manage to emerge with more strength in the coming years, we may witness a further step in the evolution of governmental and societal relationships in Africa, one characterised by a more confident and aware "African way" of carrying out international relations.