China on the global stage

China spielt inzwischen zweifellos eine zentrale Rolle in Afrikas Entwicklungsgeschichte. Nun ist die entscheidende Frage, ob afrikanische Staaten diese Rolle mit ihren eigenen Vorstellungen in Einklang bringen können.

Seit den frühen 1980er-Jahren ist China zu einem Land mit höheren mittleren Einkommen geworden. Diesen Erfolg hat es weder kommunistischer Dogmatik noch marktwirtschaftlicher Orthodoxie zu verdanken, sondern Pragmatismus, so der Ökonom Stefan Dercon.

Since the early 1980s, China has become a country which leads the world in terms of exports. That was neither brought about by Communist dogmatism nor by free-market orthodoxy, but by the regime’s pragmatism, as Stefan Dercon of Oxford University argues.

Over the past four decades, China has emerged as one of the biggest players on the world stage, driven also by its growing influence across the Global South. Here are nine facts and figures that map that ascent.

China is flooding the world market with cheap exports. Developing and emerging market countries may profit in the short term, but China’s actions could make it harder for them to develop local industries and create productive jobs.

Regimes around the world agree with China’s ideas about how the internet should be controlled. Chinese firms export digital technologies, and the government is lobbying internationally for more state regulation.

Critics have warned that Chinese projects could chip away at democracy in Latin America. Our research suggests the opposite may be happening.