Bibliography

This paper is a review of the China-Africa Beijing Summit held in Beijing on 4 and 5 November 2006. According to the author, the approach taken at the Summit combined intensive bilateral co-operation in a wide and inclusive, collective framework, and agreements were not prescriptive in tone or spirit. Two-way trade and business opportunities were very visibly associated with the Summit and new business instruments were set up to maintain the momentum build so far by trade and diplomatic relations between Africa and China. A series of new development assistance initiatives were promised in education, health, preferential loans, market access and debt cancellation. The author highlights the positive engagement with Africa at the Summit in the form of positive and wide coverage of the event in the Chinese media, representing Africa in a positive light and avoiding Afro-pessimism with stereotyped images of poverty. Attendance figures were high and a wide range of participants included presidents, premiers, students, researchers, business people and traders, ambassadors and school children. The author concludes that the Summit did not deliver a ‘Beijing Model’ or ‘Beijing Consensus’, but rather it has confirmed a strategic partnership that does not depend on a donor to deliver but on African countries’ efforts independently to resolve African problems.