I have recently finished my BA paper and I am now trying to convert it in a publishable academic article. I believe this essay brings significant contributions to both the field of political science and anthropology and also a more nuanced vision on Sino-African relations.

My thesis is the following:China’s engagement in Africa, its extractive and mercantile goals, the impact Chinese state and non-state actors have on local economies, and the implications of China’s increased commitment to African states’ developmental agendas have become major topics of debate in Africa and in the Western world of late. Although much has been written about “China in Africa” in the last decade, little attention has been paid to exactly how Chinese immigrants and Africans interact on the ground. On those rare occasions when scholars do field work before analyzing the impact of the Chinese presence on the continent, various voices and opinions are still left out. Unfortunately, the views often presented in academic work are the ones of the African leaders, bureaucrats and other local experts. As a consequence, we still know very little about how average African people see the Chinese state and non-state actors, and how the two groups of people interact with each other on a daily basis.

In this essay, I argue that the socio-economic relations between Chinese immigrants and local residents in Tanzania are predicated on the same pattern of interaction and cooperation that has governed the political and economic (partial) alliance between the Chinese and the Tanzanian states for the last fifty years. Despite the fact that Chinese immigrants and residents of Dar es Salaam might, at times, have very different agendas and perhaps strikingly different ways of seeing and analyzing this partnership, their on-site cooperation is greatly influenced by their common history, past success stories of mutual cooperation, and future potential benefits of this partnership, be those real, potential or imagined. In addition, while Tanzanians and Chinese also have similar views on how they see their mutually beneficial relations, various aspects of this partnership are constantly being negotiated and renegotiated on the ground – in the market, in the informal sector and even at the state level. Consequently, both formal and informal Sino-Tanzanian relations demonstrate a great deal of both Chinese and Tanzanian agency. This clearly suggests that the story of China in Africa is not the monolithic, hegemonic, and unidirectional relationship that some Western scholars have previously suggested.

By exploring both the Chinese state’s engagement in Tanzania and the Chinese immigrants’ commitment and subsequent consequences of their presence in the country, I also wish to suggest that the impact of the age of China in Africa has been underestimated. I believe this impact is even greater than previously thought precisely because Sino-Tanzanian relations suggest a pattern of continuous interaction between the Chinese and local people that is constantly redefined and renegotiated according to the needs and expectations of each group. This is an adaptive process and, most importantly, it is one that reflects the interests of many Chinese immigrants and local people. In this process, as it may be expected, some locals do not experience these benefits or are negatively affected by the Chinese Diaspora’s economic affairs. However, from the perspective of the average Tanzanian, Chinese presence in the country is welcomed, as it creates more competition and opportunities as well as makes affordable a wide variety of goods. At the same time, the Chinese Diaspora is on the rise, and this essay will analyze some of the factors that can explain the surge in Chinese immigrants in the country and its consequences.Understanding the history of the state and the Asian immigrants in Tanzania, their present albeit yet limited role in Tanzanian economy and the way the Chinese Diaspora is perceived by the locals will provide a new understanding of what China in Africa is, its impact and potential future trends. I analyze the Chinese’s engagement in Tanzania by using a conceptual framework proposed by scholar Stephanie Rupp. She argues that the China-Africa relations are neither neo-colonial nor imperialist but can be better described as post-colonial interdependency. I plan to analyze Mrs. Rupp’s hypothesis by applying it to Sino-Tanzanian relations in the light of the state-to-state patterns of collaboration and the informal interactions between Chinese immigrants and local Tanzanians. The goal of the Chinese state, and that of most Chinese immigrants, in Africa is clear: they are there to stay. Since Mrs. Rupp’s theoretical framework is an accurate assessment of Sino-African relations, I will use the ethnographic data from Tanzania to provide a more comprehensive analysis of what a pattern of interdependency entails in the context of the socio-economic relations between Chinese immigrants and local residents in one particular African country.

What is perhaps the most important thing you will notice is the quintessential difference between my view of the Chinese state and the Chinese immigrants to Africa between the 2007 and 2010, that is before I started doing research on China and Africa and after I centralized my data. You can find my initial, false position on China in Africa here. If this intro to my BA paper has made you interested in reading the whole manuscript you can do it by clicking here.