The China Monitor - The Centre for Chinese Studies

The China Monitor
April 2011
such as crude oil, iron, cotton, and diamonds; African imports from China include
electrical appliances, textiles, machinery, and chemicals, among others 3 . It was also
after the Reform that China embraced a more liberal economy and its manufacturing
industry became increasingly privatized and deregulated. Guangzhou became
known as the “world's factory” as the private manufacturers flourished in southern
China, where cheap goods are produced en masse with low labour cost. Around the
same time, market demand in the populous regions of West Africa underwent a
rapid expansion. For instance, the Nigerian markets rely heavily on imports, earning
Nigeria a reputation as the “cargo economy”, and it is described that “ships laden
with containers dock at Nigeria‟s ports and return almost empty to their places of
origin, as Nigeria does not have much to export” 4 . The local market has been
dependent on foreign imported goods, especially from China in the last few decades.
In the 1980s and the 1990s, large numbers of African merchants were seen in the
Canton Fair in Guangzhou. The Canton Fair is the largest international trade fair in
China which happens twice every year since 1957. It is a main expo event where
Chinese-made goods are displayed and ordered for export to different corners of the
world. The African markets found their “gold mine” in the east here and their needs
could be met by inexpensive means. In the late 1990s, many more individual African
dealers travelled from Sub-Saharan countries to Guangzhou to order goods other
than fair seasons. These petty traders are different from the Canton Fair traders in
several aspects:
1. they do not own or represent for any firm back in their countries 5 , nor do
they have considerable funds for placing substantial orders;
2. instead of attending the Canton Fair held in officially built expo halls, the
petty traders gather around the old railway station where shops are sub-let
to Chinese and African migrants, who are often selling fake goods and
participate in semi-legal activities;
3. instead of getting official invitation letter to stay in China for three months,
the traders find their way to “buy” invitation letters 6 from Chinese whom they
do not even know and, if they need to, overstay their appointed stay period
to continue business;
4. instead of staying in nice starred hotels, these traders find almost free
accommodation through network or they stay at special discounted rooms in
cheap hostels;
5. instead of having guarantees such as institutional organisation and
certificate that their goods are in good condition, the traders may have
nothing more than a spoken promise or a hand-written receipt that is kept
off-book.
“The traders near the railway
station and Canton Fair
traders are at two opposite
ends, as semi-legality versus
legality, informal economy
versus formal economy.”
The traders near the railway station and Canton Fair traders are at two opposite
ends, as semi-legality versus legality, informal economy versus formal economy,
globalisation from below versus globalisation from above. It is a “globalisation from
below” where the lower strata of the society attempts to participate and benefit from
the world economy 7 . By all means, the African traders as well as the local business
partners in Guangzhou are a mobilizing force that is not only self-interested but also
symbolically grassroot globalization.
The most frequently traded clothes (Polo shirt and T-shirt) in the African market in
Guangzhou are made of cotton. The cotton agriculture is mainly located in the
northern Chinese provinces, such as Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Hubei,
Xinjiang and so on. The cotton farmers pick the ripe cotton and sell it to the textile
factories, which process the raw material. They developed the cotton into cotton
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