Policy makers in China and African countries increasingly attach importance to the exchange of knowledge in their development cooperation. Extensive business relationship and investment projects are found to be the major platform for skill diffusion between China and Africa. To examine the mechanism and effects of the bilateral knowledge exchange, this article uses Chinese investments in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector as an example. By reviewing interactions at various levels of cooperation, namely within the enterprises, inter-enterprises and policy direction, the author reveals complex dynamics of knowledge sharing between Chinese and Ethiopian stakeholders. The knowledge transfer is not limited to formal training, but takes place in almost every aspect of daily operations and requires coordination of multiple levels. While knowledge is effectively transferred through practices, practices get improved through knowledge sharing at the meantime. Therefore, knowledge diffusion is not only an integral part of China-Africa economic cooperation for mutual benefits, but also facilitates political understanding and trust.

African nations face growing debt and default risks owing to fiscal deficits, falling commodity prices, weakening demands, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine War. This study constructs multiple spread systems to examine the time-varying relationships between exchange rates and bond spreads in Zambia, Nigeria, and Egypt, which represent high-, medium-, and lowrisk default nations, respectively, throughout the sample period and critical times by applying the BAVRSV model. This study reveals the linkage between the exchange rate and Egypt's spread is time-varying, but static in Zambia and Nigeria. Furthermore, Zambia's spread system is less stable than those of Nigeria and Egypt, with copper, crude oil, and wheat being key intermediates, respectively. The Federal Reserve rate changes, the COVID-19, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict influence the African bond spreads at different stages. The findings highlight the sensitivity of African bond spreads to exchange rates and provide valuable insights for bond investors.

African countries have been struggling with debt distress for decades. This paper focuses on the continent’s recent effort to finance through issuing international bonds and borrowing commercial loans after the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) programs. At the start of the twenty-first century, when African economies were performing well, the international capital market was eager to offer favorable conditions and facilitate their financing. However, as economic growth has slowed in Africa in recent years, the market has imposed stricter rules and put significant pressure on the borrowers’ fiscal health. Through a comparison with Chinese financing approaches, the paper illustrates two main new trends in Africa’s development financing activities and analyzes their diverging logic and possible impacts. While the Western private institutions consider loans primarily from the perspective of financial market, the Chinese creditors stress the role of financing in comprehensive industrial development. In spite of the difference, all parties should communicate, coordinate and adjust to achieve the coexistence of multiple financing approaches for the purpose of sustainable growth in Africa.

非洲债务问题的经济学解释 自上世纪70年代以来,国际社会关于非洲债务的讨论就从未中断.20世纪七八十年代,全球经济衰退导致国际市场原料价格下跌,大多数依赖原料产品出口的非洲国家收入锐减,财务状况急剧恶化,陷入债务危机.此后,多边金融机构和以西方国家为主的双边债权人制定了以重债穷国倡议(HIPC)和多边债务减免倡议(MDRI)为代表的一系列救助计划和债务减免措施.

自2020年以来,非洲国家的债务问题屡屡成为国际社会关注焦点.2020年11月,赞比亚出现主权债务违约.2022年12月,加纳宣布暂停偿还大部分外债,成为又一陷入主权债务违约风波的非洲国家.一些西方政客和媒体频频拿债务问题指责中非合作.美国财政部长耶伦、常驻联合国代表托马斯-格林菲尔德等高官访问非洲时,指责中国"造成非洲国家债务危机","阻碍相关国家债务重组进程".国际货币基金组织(IMF)和世界银行的负责人也公开向中国施压,要求中国服从这些机构提出的减债方案.

The party competition surrounding the management of COVID-19 in Tanzania before the 2020 presidential election was essentially a contest between political and expert authority.President Magufuli and the ruling party,Chama cha Mapinduzi（CCM）,employed rhetorical strategies to emphasize religious beliefs and alternative therapies over expert advice,and used executive power to systematically suppress expert authority.This resulted in the successful implementation of an epidemic prevention policy that prioritized economic performance and guaranteed the basic livelihood of the population during the epidemic.Consequently,a majority of voters supported Magufuli’s re-election.The death of President Magufuli in 2021 and the subsequent controversy surrounding the cause of his death weakened the direct persuasive effect of the party’s rhetoric.However,the indirect persuasive path based on governance performance was more influential,as the majority of the population continued to support the CCM regime and its epidemic management policy despite the rhetorical controversy.The concepts of authority competition and rhetorical capacity contribute to the understanding of public health governance and party politics processes in developing countries.

African countries face an economic transformation gap. Given the large and growing Chinese presence on the African continent, a fundamental question is whether Chinese firms contribute to, or hinder, economic transformation in Africa. This article conducts a scoping review of over one hundred sources, examining the pathways through which Chinese firms can affect economic transformation. On balance, the literature points to a positive role of Chinese firms. Africa-China trade leads to mixed results, while Chinese investment and infrastructure construction are found to contribute positively to transformation. Chinese firms are also found to support capacity building, spillovers and innovation in African countries.

举步维艰的非洲工业化 非洲各国政府早就达成共识:"工业化是发展的核心",并在过去半个多世纪中,不断致力于规划工业化路径,发展本国的工业部门.[1]然而,无论是20世纪60～70年代强调自力更生和"进口替代"的工业政策,还是此后西方援助国促使非洲国家推行的以市场自由化为特征的"结构调整"政策,都未能帮助非洲实现持续的工业化转型与增长.21世纪,非洲国家重新规划了工业化的路径.整个大陆统一思想,制订了雄心勃勃的"非洲发展新伙伴计划"(2001)和"非洲加速工业发展的行动计划"(2007),但这些新举措的效 果仍有待检验.虽然在过去20年中,大多数年份非洲制造业的绝对产值基本保持增长,但是增速缓慢,导致其在国内生产总值中的比例反而下降(图1).

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsChina-Africa and an Economic Transformation, edited by Arkebe Oqubay and Justin Yifu Lin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. xx+342 pp. £69.00 (cloth); also available as an e-book.Tang XiaoyangTang XiaoyangTsinghua University, Beijing Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 88July 2022 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/720240 Views: 28Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The thesis deals with special economic zones (SEZs). The first part, chapter 2-5, explains them as a phenomenon. Their history and features/incentives are spelled out, as are their underlying rationale – the advantages the host can achieve through them (chapter 4.1). These possible advantages include increased employment; cluster effects; technology transfer and training; partial policy reforms; laboratory simulations of economic policy and being a means of regional policies. An important way SEZs can achieve this is to attract foreign direct investments. Also the possible costs of zones are presented (chapter 4.2) as well as their alternative cost (chapter 4.3). To complete this part of the analysis chapter 5 presents the point of view of the firms, i.e. the investors SEZs are supposed to lure. The second part of the thesis, chapter 6-7, applies the first part on the case of India. This results in some specific advice, implications, for the SEZ policy of India. These include using SEZs as laboratories to find beneficial general economic policies and SEZ policies; to include the Indian diaspora to a greater extent to achieve the chapter 4.1 advantages; the promotion of cluster effects; as well as others. The rapid change in the Indian economy increases the uncertainty, but the main recommendations should be robust in all likely scenarios.

This paper examines Chinese firms' operations in the Zambian and Malawian cotton sectors with emphasis on the manner and effects of knowledge transfer. As new players in the arena, Chinese investors have adopted business models and management styles that differ from those of previous foreign investors in the region. Their low-cost and low-risk approaches have helped them grow quickly in these two countries and seize considerable market share from the established Western investors. Through an in-depth case study and comparison with Western companies, the author reveals that the Chinese investors flexibly modify conventional knowledge transfer channels like labor training, demonstration, and forward and backward linkages to fit their business models and local socioeconomic contexts. Simultaneously, they take advantage of China's strength in manufacturing and experiment with synergistic development in the industrial sector to overcome growth constraints.

Based on a brief review of the existing literature on knowledge transfer between Chinese and Africans, this introductory essay sheds light on the purpose, methodologies, and main findings of this special issue. Aiming to investigate the impacts of Chinese FDI projects on technology learning in Africa, a team of SAIS-CARI researchers conducted field research in six African countries. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a comprehensive analysis on China-Africa knowledge transfer has been carried out. Our research finds that the majority of investments in agricultural and manufacturing comes from private small-to-medium sized companies that are driven by market factors and operate outside the Chinese government. The research suggests that Chinese investments in Africa have contributed to hiring and training local employees, demonstrated advanced technologies, and cooperated with local enterprises; however, the effectiveness and sustainability of the knowledge transfer varies across different sectors and countries.

This chapter sets up theoretical framework for the entire book. The effectiveness of China’s own development and its engagements in Africa cannot be plausibly explained by the existing theories on the China Model. Researchers’ efforts to define tenets and patterns of “Beijing Consensus” all fail to grasp the dynamic complexity in practice. By analyzing the implication of Chinese pragmatism in the market reform, this chapter points out that the essence of modern development, in the form of industrial capitalism, lies in shifting from traditional cultural and religious values to the pursuit of sustainable productivity growth. The change of societal targets requires comprehensive sociopolitical transformation to enable sophisticated division of labor and massive market distribution. However, the simultaneous changes of numerous factors in a society tend to create a chicken-egg dilemma, hindering smooth structural transformation. China was able to escape this trap by having the whole country experiment flexibly and gradually to achieve synergism of development. The coevolutionary pragmatism has also been adopted in China’s cooperation with Africa. Aiming at achieving overall economic growth for partners, Chinese government and enterprises do not stick to definite models, but have open attitude to promote commercial practices in Africa’s diverse conditions.

A special economic zone (SEZ) is considered as a successful policy instrument in China’s own reform. Not only Chinese government and enterprises, but also African governments want to borrow this model to stimulate development in Africa. A handful of Chinese economic cooperation zones have been constructed in Africa since early 2000s, but the outcome was not satisfactory. By tracking the progress of six major cooperation zones, the author argues that there is no so-called “Chinese Model” of SEZ development. The key to SEZs’ success is to build synergism between the zones and the host countries’ structural transformation. Situated in very different political-economic contexts, the Sino-African cooperation zones struggle to build their connection with the development of host countries in terms of infrastructure harmonization, skill spillover, business linkage, and strategy coordination. However, after decade-long experiments, the zones have generated incremental policy impacts. Ethiopia, Egypt, and Zambia launched new industrial zone programs with Chinese participation, while other countries gave different degrees of support for building zones. Coupled with a large amount of inflowing manufacturing investments from China, the renewed initiative of zonal development is poised to impact Africa’s industrial landscape.

There is a gap between the elusive concept of Beijing Consensus and China's effective practices to promote economic growth at home and in other countries. This article aims to expound this phenomenon by examining both the rationale underlying China's structural transformation and the corresponding practices in development cooperation. Using a case study on the evolution of infrastructure construction within China and abroad, this article argues that China's success has little to do with a new pattern of state capitalism, but rather presents a different manner of understanding and facilitating modernization. Target-oriented non-linear synergism can drive comprehensive transformation more effectively in developing countries than model-oriented linear mechanism. With a consistent goal, the pragmatic thinking enables multiple stakeholders to coevolve in diverse contexts through open attitude.