Chinese MNCs in perspective Perhaps the first and most important point to make is that Chinese MNCs are, in many respects, like other state-owned MNCs operating in Africa, for example France's Elf-Aquitaine or South Africa's Eskom. In the French case, Elf-Aquitaine has been highly politicised, building upon or even defining France's Africa policy in particular countries such as Gabon and Angola. The close proximity between French business and political interests, manifested by the presence of oil company executives in the inner circle at the Elysee Palace as well as the circulation of key political elites such as Jean-Christophe Mitterrand within political and business circles, has been a feature of France's post-independence Africa policy from the outset. 2 Moreover, the modus operandi of foreign policy makers in Paris has been to construct policy around a network of personal relationships with individual African leaders, bolstered by a web of bilateral agreements in trade, finance, development assistance and defence. 3 The result has been, much to the dismay of many in France, a convergence between the interests of the oil company, the national armaments industry and the government's development policy that has led to, in its worst manifestations, French troops being sent into African countries to quell popular uprisings against local dictators. 4 Much of the thrust of the seemingly perennial efforts at reform of France's Africa policy has been aimed, with limited success, at untangling this complex set of relations with the continent. South Africa's parastatal, Eskom, represents another form of MNC in Africa whose strategy and operations blend national concerns with those of the continent's major power supplier. The convergence between South African economic interests surrounding the hydroelectric potential of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which Eskom seeks to exploit as South Africa searches for new power sources, has played a major part in Pretoria's foreign policy calculations towards that country. 5 According to Daniel and Lutchman: It is little wonder then that the South African government has committed so much in the way of time and effort, as well as military peacekeepers, to the task of bringing political stability to the DRC and to ending the endemic conflict in particularly the eastern region (Ituri) of the country. 6

Van der Merwe, Christine (2007), 'Infrastructure access a 'major bottleneck' to Africa's growth -World Bank', Engineering News, 14 November, http://www.engineeringnews.co. za/article.php?a_id=121224. Williams, Lionel (2006), 'Telecommunications', Who owns Whom Research Report (SICCODE 75200), April. Wolfe, Adam (2006), 'The Increasing Importance of African Oil', Power and Interest News Report, 20 March, http://www.pinr.com/report.php? ac=view_report&report_id=460. Zappone, Chris (2007), 'China poised for global shopping spree', CNN Money, 30 March, http:/ /money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/inter national/china_investment/index.htm. Zeng, Ming & Peter Williamson (2003), 'The Hidden Dragons', Harvard Business Review, 1 October.

Current China-Africa relations have been statically framed: China invests in the continent and exports resources extracted by its state-owned enterprises and fuelled by aid flows, while simultaneously undercutting African industry through cheap exports. We frame this debate, then explore how the framework could adjust in response to changing economic realities in China, centered on the "rebalancing" of the growth model toward domestic consumption. We argue that a new wave of private sector-led, low-cost manufacturers may find its way to selected African shores, in the process transforming those economies and the way in which China interacts with them, both for the better.