Transcript

The motivations for China's engagement in Africa are numerous, but the key ones, really, are economic and political. On the economic side, they're there to gather natural resources that can fuel their own development. So massive industrialisation, the cities are growing, they need all those raw materials to make that happen. On the other hand, they're also looking for markets for all of those goods. They produce a lot of stuff, they've got to get rid of it. And one of the places they can sell that is into the developing world, into Africa and other countries. China's relationship with Africa evolved over a number of centuries, really. There's evidence that they were first there in the 16th century. But we're really focusing on the last sort of 10 to 20 years. So under Chairman Mao in the last 60 years, there was some diplomatic relations. It was technical cooperation around certain things, around agriculture, for example. But as China's industrialised, it's sought those raw materials that it needs. So the last 15 years, we've seen a lot more engagement around accessing things like oil and minerals that they use for their own development. Politically, there's a set of issues really around how African countries can support China in some of its diplomatic claims. So the big one is all around the recognition of Taiwan. And so countries that don't recognise Taiwan, which broke away from China, tend to get more preferential treatment from the Chinese. And the Chinese like that because that gives them certain status within their negotiations about their rights over Taiwan. So it's a complicated issue but it's mainly economic and political.