Non-Aligned Architecture: China’s Designs on and in Ghana and Guinea, 1955-92

Abstract

The current international attention devoted to contemporary Chinese-financed and constructed development in Africa has tended to obscure complex and multivalent histories of the relationships between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and numerous African nations; and many of these histories date back decades. The ideological origins behind socialist China’s engagement with Africa, and the geopolitical dynamics that continue to propel them forward, trace back to the time of Chairman Mao Zedong, who first coined the term ‘intermediate zone’ in 1946 to position the vast expanse of contested territories and undecided loyalties existing between the ideological poles of the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. Nine years later (1955), at the first Non-Aligned Movement conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared thatever since modern times most of the countries of Asia and Africa in varying degrees have been subjected to colonial plunder and oppression, and have thus been forced to remain in a stagnant state of poverty and backwardness […]. We need to develop our countries independently with no outside interference and in accordance with the will of the people.

Disaggregating Development: A Critical Analysis of Sino-African Megaprojects

“…Ceremonial megaprojects became a central medium through which China could establish and promote its ideological agenda within these policy spaces (Roskam, 2015). On the other side, african elites often leveraged these projects to both strengthen relations with China and legitimize their rule.…”

“…However, beyond supporting visions of ‘modernity’ in recipient countries, the projects were also utilized to foster trade, expand Chinese cultural influences and ensure the domestic and international legitimacy of the CCP (Ding and Xue, 2015). Additionally, these projects were part of a concerted effort by the Chinese state to promote (via associated industrial exhibitions) its manufactured goods around the world (in places such as Havana, Damascus, Khartoum and Yangon) to ease the domestic economic turmoil caused by the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961) (Roskam, 2015).…”

“…86-104 Infrastructure Projects given the rapid, state-led nature of its industrialization and infrastructural development, China has one of the world's most developed and dynamic construction sectors, with a specialization in civil works and large projects (Foster et al, 2009). as per Roskam (2015), 7 of the world's 25 largest construction companies are Chinese, including 4 of the top 6. The international competitiveness of the sector can be seen in the fact that between 2007 and 2015, Chinese firms won approximately 30% of World Bank infrastructural projects in africa, the highest winning percentage of any single country.…”

“…However, per capita, China's gDP was approximately the same as Nigeria and Benin, two newly independent countries. as Roskam (2015) describes, this statistical dissonance allowed China to play a two-level rhetorical game; at once claiming that it was a poor, developing country, while concomitantly touting its industrial prowess and the transformative properties of its state-led developmental model. This dual discourse is used to this day.…”

China’s foreign aid architecture in a transitional period, 1964–1976

“…Duanfang Lu (2007) proposed to analyse China's overseas aid projects within the framework of Third World modernism. Cole Roskam (2015) systematically studied China's aid projects in Ghana andGuinea from 1955 to 1992, and explored the complexities of the architectural and diplomatic terrains. Charlie Xue and others conducted comprehensive survey and analysis on China's architectural export since the 1950s, with a focus on such building types as stadiums (Ding and Xue, 2015;Xue et al, 2019;Chang et al, 2019).…”