China's investments on the African continent – not a savior

Prof. Robert Kappel

Robert Kappel, Professor Dr. em, teaches at the International SEPT Competence Center (Small Enterprise Promotion and Training) at the University of Leipzig.

Next week, the next China-Africa Summit (November 28/29 2021) will take place. In recent years, China has become a key economic factor on the African continent. But the high hopes that Beijing would contribute to an employment boom have been disappointed.

China regularly claims that Chinese involvement is good for the development of African countries. There is no doubt that Africa's foreign trade with China has soared. A few years ago, China was even praised for coming to Africa's aid to bridge the technological and economic divide. The People's Republic was more willing to invest than Europe and the US. China has been involved in infrastructure development like no other country to date. Some observers have even gone so far as to claim that Chinese private companies' investments in recent decades have spurred Africa's industrialization and ignited a surge in employment, improving people's lives. But upon closer inspection, these statements prove to be less than credible.

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