A Political Economy of China’s Policy of Non-Interference: Experiences from Resource-Rich African Countries
Phineas Bbaala

Abstract
China-Africa relations constitute a sub-set of the much wider south-south relations dating back to the 1950s and 1960s when most developing countries were fighting for their independence. With a common history of foreign occupation, China and Africa also share experiences of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers. Since their first formal contacts in the mid-1950s, China and Africa have worked together to support the cause of oppressed peoples and occupied territories around the world. They have also helped each other to achieve and consolidate their nationhood. While China supported Africa’s liberation struggle from colonialism, Africa fought for the formal recognition of the mainland China as the sole government of the whole China by the United Nations General Assembly. However, after a decade of disappearance from the continent, China returned to Africa at the turn of the 21st Century emphasising economic cooperation at the expense of political relations. Nonetheless, China has continued to sermonise its old policy of non-interference as a guiding principle in relations with Africa. Contrary to the ideals of non-interference, this article raises questions of Chinese interference in governance affairs of resource-rich and populous African countries.

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