China as a Model Development Partner
A case for African states to embrace the deliberate pursuit of modernity and structural socio-economic change (and learn from China's experience while at it)
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I: When you don’t know where you are going, anywhere along whatever path will do
This post is more of a pamphlet than my normal commentary here, and was triggered by a number of conversations I had following this year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing.
The summit’s theme was “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future.” According to the English translation of his speech, President Xi Jinping mentioned the word “modernization” more than 30 times. The description of the theme and Xi’s speech at the summit were both very official Chinese. And as I argue below, they also reflected China’s important role as a model development partner for African states. China, in many ways, exemplifi…