The pre-Deng China

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At the geopolitical level, China saw Africa in the immediate post-colonial period as a continent that offered it the geographical reach in developing its claim as the global champion of the Third World. China portrayed itself, especially in the pre-Deng Xiaoping period, as engaged in a struggle against hegemonies’, and sought to develop stronger political ties with newly independent African countries to enhance its global reach and influence. China’s Africa policy touched on enhancing ties between Africa and Asia (Afro-Asian relations), as well as China seeing itself as the world’s largest country reaching out to a continent with the largest number of developing countries. The political objectives of China’s outreach was presented as South- South cooperation (this is also called “Economic Cooperation among Developing Countries”), and an exercise of countries trying to build trust and developing mutual ties after sharing a colonial experience that boomed on the African continent. China also sought to get diplomatic support from African countries, given their numbers in the UN General Assembly, on issues of interest to the country as it developed global aspirations different from those of the US and the former USSR. Samuel Kim described China’s use of the UN for its global aspirations clearly as follows: “At the global level, the UN General Assembly affords a vital forum for the projection of China’s symbolic identification with the Third World. The UN’s recognition of the People’s Republic in late 1971 as the ‘sole legitimate government of China’ allowed Beijingaccess to the chief global arena for the politics of collective legitimation and delegitimation” (Kim, 1994, p.135).
China has moved from pre-Deng preoccupation with buildin...

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...ted by China’s growing need for natural resources, and also the need to deploy its massive currency reserves in foreign markets. There was a shift, as Samuel Kim describes it in the context of China and the Third World, of the relationship from aid to exchange (Kim, 1994, p.152) or what Wenran Jiang calls a relationship restructured from “anti-colonial brothers-in arms to economic and trade partners, based on market principles” (Jiang, 2006, p.6). It is clear that the view of Africa, as a market and source of raw material, was part of China’s Grand Strategy. As Chris Alden points out, the recommitment by Deng to transforming China’s economy was coupled with a caution on the best approach to foreign policy: “Observe calmly, secure our position, hide our capabilities and bide our time. Be good at maintaining a low profile, never claim leadership.” (Alden, 2007, p.11)

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