Who Is Attracted to the Chinese Model in Africa?

Abstract

There has been much recent scholarly interest in the activities of China in Africa. Scholars have noted that China presents an alternative developmental model, that challenges the “Washington Consensus.” To what extent is this model attractive to African publics, and to whom is it attractive? Using the 2016 wave 6 Afrobarometer data, as well as data from V-Dem and other country-level economic financial aid and trade data, and using multilevel regression analysis, I find that there is little support for the idea that a country’s dependence on Chinese financial aid impacted in any way African public opinion about China as a model (although the volume of Chinese imports relative to Western imports correlates negatively with viewing China as a model). Furthermore, when considering economic versus ideological explanations, individual perceptions of China regarding economic benefits for their countries matter more than ideological attraction (or revulsion) of the China model.

The media in China–Africa public relations: Assessing China's attractiveness beyond economic development assistance

“…Thus, the analysis failed to support Hypothesis 2. This finding corroborates Ishiyama's (2023) argument that there is little support or evidence to show that a country's dependence on Chinese development assistance impacted African public opinion about China in any way. However, this article provides evidence that the likelihood of China's economic and development investment in Nigeria influencing popular support in Nigeria is a function of the Chinese programs' visibility, supporting Hypothesis 1.…”

“…However, finding a singular overarching African perception of China would be challenging. African perceptions differ from country to country and person to person, shaped by each country's and individual's prevailing sociocultural, economic, and political environment and orientation (Afrobarometer, 2015(Afrobarometer, , 2020Awoonor & Forson, 2020;Ishiyama, 2023;Otele, 2023).…”

“…13-14). Ishiyama (2023) concludes that there is no relationship between high Chinese development finance to a country and the host public's willingness to view China positively to the extent of wanting to emulate China. However, who is attracted to China and views it positively is a matter of individual basis, conditioned on their belief that Chinese assistance benefits the country.…”

“…It answers how expansion in development assistance impacts Nigerians' perception of China and whether China has achieved an effective outcome from its assistance to Nigeria. Perhaps those attracted to Chinese economic influence are conditioned on personal beliefs regarding Chinese development assistance (Ishiyama, 2023).…”