Matters of State: Politics, Governance, and Agency in China- Africa Engagement

April 19-20, 2018

Lina Benabdallah, Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations, Wake Forest University
Deborah Bräutigam, Director of China-Africa Research Initiative and Director of International Development
Tom De Bryun, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Paul Kadetz, Drew University
Brian Levy, Professor of International Development, Johns Hopkins SAIS
Hezron Makundi, University of Dar es Salaam
Jackson Miller, Harvard Kennedy School
June Sun, Africa's Asian Options (AFRASO)
Barney Walsh, King’s College London
Ying Xai, Harvard University

The school's China-Africa Research Initiative (SAIS-CARI) held its 4th Annual Conference featuring panels exploring China's relationship with Africa on leadership, regulation, healthcare, state capacity, and data.

Among the first-day highlights was the panel "Leadership, Power and Agency, and Regulation" which focused on the context of key China-Africa relationships. Speaking on this panel was Ying Xai of Harvard Univeristy discussed the implications of policies, laws, and agencies for outward investment regulation in China. Barney Walsh of King’s College London analyzed the leadership perspective on China-Africa relations. June Sun of AFRASO considered the of emerging markets’ participation in global internet governance using China and South Africa as case studies. Jackson Miller of the Harvard Kennedy School analyzed the "Sino-fication" of Malagasy politics using a model popularized by the Kung Fu Master Gao.

The Conference continued on Friday with a panel on “African Capacity, Bureaucracies and Norm Diffusion.” Johns Hopkins SAIS Professor Brian Levy noted that every presentation at the conference showed complexities of country-context, sectoral contexts and multiplicities of Chinese and African actors.

Hezron Makundi of the University of Dar es Salaam discussed the negotiation of the technological capacity and transfer in Chinese projects and the role of the Tanzanian government. Tom De Bryun of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven discussed decision-making power and African agency in projects undertaken with Chinese, Brazilian and Indian companies. Lina Benabdallah of Wake Forest University analyzed agency and complexities by exploring the extent to which skills transfer are accompanied by the transfer of norms. Paul Kadetz of Drew University discussed diplomacy and dependency to unpack the outcomes of sustainable self-development in Sino-Malagasy health diplomacy.

Additional panel videos available at SAISEvents