The question of Sino-imperialism

Abstract

This thesis has examined the contemporary Sino-African relationship in the light of the Chinese political economic structure. In a changing global political economic landscape, it has become necessary to look beyond classic discourses of North-South interaction defined by neo-imperial structures and neoliberal mechanisms. By investigating the Chinese political economic structure and its mechanisms, the specifics of the Sino-African interaction, taking neo- imperialism as a comparative frame, a new framework was created in search of a means to accurately delineate a South-South relationship in a modern, globalized international structure. It was shown that the Sino-African interaction is indeed not of a classic neo-imperial nature, although similarities can be observed. Instead, it is a sinicized, mutually beneficial process of cooperative interaction. Based on these factors and characteristics, the resulting framework has been dubbed Sino-imperialism, and is based on the embeddedness of the Chinese identity, the prevalence of the Chinese State, and the goal of realizing Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream.