Pursuing Techno-Nationalism in an age of Globalisation: Chinese FDI in Angola

Abstract

In the last decade, the emerging relationship between Africa and China has been intensely studied in academia, however understanding why this relationship has developed in its current form has remained largely unresolved. In particular, the growing role of Chinese firms on the African continent challenges the understanding of how the Chinese state regulates and supports the export of products and technical standards. This paper presents a new perspective on the relationship between China and Africa by arguing that these economic relations can be best understood as products of the domestic Chinese political economy and its internal conditions. By drawing on a domestic institutions framework of analysis, I examine how the orienting ideas and institutional characteristics of the Chinese state explain its export credit programme in Africa. I focus specifically on the case of Angola and the telecommunications infrastructure projects provided in that country by China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank). My findings suggest that China’s export credit programme in Angola is being driven by techno-nationalist ideas and institutional features which share similarities, and important differences, with the East Asian developmental state model. I hypothesise that these differences lie in the historical construction of elite perceptions; the organisational make-up of the Chinese state and in its relationship with domestic firms. These findings have important implications for understanding China’s growing role in world affairs, specifically Africa, and for studies on the Chinese model of development.