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The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story Of China In Africa (2010)

by Deborah Brautigam(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0199550220 (ISBN13: 9780199550227)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: For the most part, this book accomplished what it set out to do: dispel a lot of rumors and myths. In that regard, it is insightful and worth reading. Brautigam lucidly explains how Chinese involvement in Africa is not entirely new, though its scale has increased as China has grown economically. Also, she points out that many of the lessons China learned during its own development have had a major impact on its aid and investment policies. Further, she does well to articulate the goals (mostly based on official statements) of Chinese aid and business in Africa. Most important is the fact that a lot of what goes on is not aid, but instead business and investment. Too often we confuse the two, leading to unfair criticism. Despite its strengths, I felt the book, as a whole, h... moread some glaring flaws. First, Brautigam fails to adequately answer the question of just how much positive impact Chinese involvement in Africa is having on ordinary Africans. She tries a little when discussing China's agricultural investments and aid packages, but the analysis falls short. Additionally, she quotes her interview subjects and newspaper reports that refer to African workers and managers involved in different Chinese projects as lazy and incompetent. After reproducing them, she never addresses the utterances at all (with maybe one exception). Failing to follow up on statements like these is evasive: she's not saying anyone's lazy, but she's not saying the quotes are wrong, either. These kinds of tacit agreement and lazy explanation are ubiquitous in the book.Still, I think this book is worth reading. It sheds light on an important topic, challenges myths, and raises further questions.
review 2: I thought this book was extremely useful in confronting the rampant rumors and misinformation about China's involvement in Africa. Most of what they are doing there is commercial investment, not aid, and their levels of investment remain much lower than those of the US, EU, etc. Furthermore, they are investing in everything, not just resource extraction, but also manufacturing, agriculture, etc. I have two critiques about the book though. 1) The first half of the book was pretty dense, and I really felt that the meat and potatoes of the book was the last five chapters. The first half was useful in explaining how China's aid/investment strategy developed, but its desnity discouraged others in our book club (all nerd economists) from getting farther. 2) I felt like she approached the topic from the point of view of a "China apologist." Even in the instances where she acknowledged China was doing something bad, there was always a follow-up of, "Someone else did it first," or, "They have learned from their mistake and they are trying harder not to mess up now." China's current posture with respect to Syria, Iran, etc. suggest otherwise. Worth a read, but I'm still a little skeptical. less

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