Seminar: China’s Global Backyard: Comparing Chinese Relations with Southeast Asia and Africa

This seminar has been organized together with the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden.

The influence of China globally has garnered much attention in recent years, as the last decade has seen unprecedented growth from this economic powerhouse that is equal parts communist and capitalist. This has been particularly so for nations of the developing world, for which China represents a source of aid and no-strings-attached investment, as well as a hegemonic power in the quest for scarce resources.
Both Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have a long history of political, economic, and social interaction with China. Considered as China’s natural backyard, Southeast Asia is a crucial observation field to describe the complexity and the heterogeneity of mobilities and identities in the so-called “Chinese century”. For Africa, the history is shorter and less culturally integrated, but nonetheless long, dating back to the Indian Ocean trade of fourteenth century.
For both Southeast Asia and Africa, interactions with China have taken new forms in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly during the Cold War era when the focus was largely on politics and ideology. Today, relations between China and other nations are largely based on economics, but contain the legacy of previous eras.

This seminar will explore China’s relations with both Southeast Asia and Africa from a modern standpoint, identifying similarities and differences, as well as exploring what developing nations can learn by exploring China’s influence in other nations.