Going Viral? The Impacts of COVID-19 on Sino-African Relations
Citation:
Pádraig Carmody, Going Viral? The Impacts of COVID-19 on Sino-African Relations, African Studies Quarterly, 20, 3, 2021, 1 - 23Abstract:
How are we to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on geopolitics and
specifically the relations between China and Africa? Is the pandemic a conjunctural event,
which will not have lasting impacts, or does it represent a “critical juncture” where the
nature of Sino-African relations is recast in significant ways? This paper explores this issue
with a focus on African agency in the reproduction and reshaping of Sino-African
relations. It argues that while the Belt and Road Initiative is declining in importance in
terms of Sino-African engagements, COVID-19 has offered an opportunity for China to
increase its soft and “productive-relational” powers on the continent, while reconfiguring
some African elites’ “strategy of extraversion.” As such, the impacts of the pandemic seem
to be reinforcing extant trajectories and path dependencies rather than fundamentally
reshaping them.
Author's Homepage:
http://people.tcd.ie/carmodypDescription:
PUBLISHED
Author: Carmody, Padraig
Type of material:
Journal ArticleCollections
Series/Report no:
African Studies Quarterly;20;
3;
Availability:
Full text availableKeywords:
China, Africa, COVID-19, Geopolitics, Mask diplomacySubject (TCD):
International Development , International IntegrationMetadata
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