The China Monitor - The Centre for Chinese Studies

The China Monitor
April 2011
Editorial
Dear Reader,
China‟s Africa policy is often suspected to be following a „great plan‟ and
observers tend to speak of „the Chinese‟ as if everyone was following one
strategy. Trade with China is often a matter of state-to-state deals providing a
framework in which companies can operate, as highlighted in last month‟s China
Monitor. Yet, there is another side of the story that we would like to highlight this
month. The discussion on the „macro‟ element of relations is incomplete without
the „micro‟ level of individual decisions and actions.
There are general guidelines and basic policies, such as China‟s Africa policy of
2006 or the „Going Out‟ Strategy of 2001. However, many interactions are based
on individuals making use of opportunities, leading to „grassroot globalisation‟,
as our author Yang Yang calls it. These actions might be within the confines of
policies formulated in Beijing and in bi-national commissions – or they might go
beyond it. Seeing „all Chinese‟ strive for the same thing is naïve and as wrong
as the Western assumption that globalisation is simply „happening to‟ Africans.
Small trader migration is arguably one of the issues that is beyond state
command (or control) in China, too, as illustrated by the second piece, an
account of joint research between Xiamen and Stellenbosch Universities. Some
people simply grasp opportunities where they present themselves, irrespective
of whether they are induced by Beijing or whichever their capital city might be. It
is much rather a matter of personal risk calculations and entrepreneurship if
these opportunities are sought within one‟s community or beyond – at times
even in communities whose language and habit are foreign.
It is intriguing to see how similar patterns for migration are between those
African that seek opportunities in China and those Chinese that seek
opportunities in (South) Africa. On both sides, determining factors are family
bonds, loyalties to the own group, and rational considerations of where
opportunities are. It is only in the latter point that state policies come into the
picture when Africans or Chinese are taking individual decisions on their lives.
They are an obvious – if not THE most obvious – element in Sino-African
relations that needs to be researched and understood.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Sven Grimm
Director, Centre for Chinese Studies
© Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch University; All Rights Reserved
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