China In Africa Essay

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The Impact of China on Zimbabwe and South Africa
In the recent years, China has had a growing presence in the Africa. China started trading, delivering aid and starting new projects in Africa. China’s involvement in Africa is something that has caused debates among many citizens and government officials. Many believe that China’s goals were noticed around the world. Not only did China worsen the countries’ economic conditions by causing high levels of inflation and high unemployment rates but China also represented a new form of colonialism. This caused a direct impact on the political system of those countries. For instance, Zimbabwe and South Africa have different economy, political system and different history. When looking at these two different countries, we can see that the end results of their relationship with China are very similar. However, we also need to know the difference between the two countries like why currently one seems to suffer more from this partnership than the other.
Politically, no one is really sure of China’s true intentions. Although, there have been numerous speculations. However, experts seem to agree more towards the idea that “China does it for its own personal interest, such as using Africa strategically to become a global superpower and increase its economy (Looy and Haan 6).” It first began with China’s desire to be more present on the international affairs after its many years being only active regionally. In order to keep America to take over Africa, China decided to be more active in Africa. Africa at this time was a continent that was ignored because it was underdeveloped and had weak economy. On the other hand, America claimed to have no interest in getting involved in these states “sover...

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...for the countries. In fact it has invested a lot of money in those countries, most of it goes back to the investors due to unequal trade agreements and the overflowing of the African markets with Chinese goods. While case studies of Zimbabwe and South Africa should not be used to get a general idea for the whole African country, I believe this shows the impacts of such partnership can have. Currently, South Africa is a richer and more politically stable country than Zimbabwe, I would have thought the pattern and the effects of the Chinese investments in that country would be different. However, I have found similar problems. Both of the countries suffered from high levels of inflation and unemployment. However, China has been constantly involved in the states’ affairs, conducting questionable activities that goes against human rights and the “state’s sovereignty”.

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