Transcript

So when we think about China coming to Africa, one of the things you kind of assume is because China is a very big country, both economically and politically, that it kind of bosses that relationship. And certainly, the common sense view is that China holds all the cards. It has the power, and therefore, determines its own agendas. It gets its own way. And through our research, it became quite clear that actually, African governments, in particular, are able to some extent- and there is to some extent- to shape that relationship so they can determine what kind of investments come in, on what terms those investments come. You know, we see, for example, in Sudan there was a use of Chinese investment to sort of shore up a particular political leader. So I think what we try to argue and look at in our work is to say, well, actually, it's not a one-sided relationship, it's a two-way relationship, and that we really need to understand both sides of that relationship to work out how things happen and crucially, what impacts those relationships have on the ground in Africa.