Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T05:27:00.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

China in Africa, Viewed from Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2015

Adriana Erthal Abdenur
Get access

Extract

In the Boane district of Mozambique, about halfway between Maputo and the border with Swaziland, the National Agrarian Research Institute in Umbeluzi hosts two experiments in development cooperation provided by fellow developing countries. Behind a gated wall, the Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center—built in record time by China—experiments with different techniques of vegetable cultivation. Barely 500 meters away, technicians from the Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research, known as EMBRAPA, work with Mozambican counterparts from a food security program, installing an irrigation system along an open field. Taken together, the two projects are emblematic of an emerging tension within Brazil's and China's presence in Africa: does development cooperation in Boane represent competition or complementarity between these providers of development cooperation? In addition, does their proximity suggest a possibility of collaboration between these two providers?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 257 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Photos of the two sites appear in a presentation by Alex Shankland and Lizbeth Navas-Alemán given at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, on February 12, 2013.

2 Romilly Greenhill, Annalisa Prizzon, and Andrew Rogerson, “How Are Developing Countries Managing the New Aid Landscape?” ODI Centre for Aid & Public Expenditure, March 2013.

3 Dávila, Jerry, Hotel Trópico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization, 1950–1980 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See, e.g., Presidência da República, “Discurso do Presidente da República, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, no almoço com o president da República da Nigéria, Olusegun Obasanjo” [Speech by President Lula da Silva during luncheon with the president of the Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo], September 6, 2005.

5 An estimated 4.8 million enslaved Africans arrived in Brazil between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, O trato dos viventes: Formação do Brasil no Atlântico Sul, séculos XVI e XVII [The trade of the living: The formation of Brazil within the South Atlantic from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries] (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000).

6 de Andrade Pinto, Paulo Cordeiro, “Brasil-África: Relações privilegiadas” [Brazil-Africa: Privileged relations], Revista Brasileira de Comércio Exterior 116 (2013): 56–63Google Scholar.

7 Ministério das Relações Exteriores, Divisão de Inteligência Comercial, “Comércio Exterior” [Foreign trade], January 2015; Kingsley Ighobor, “China in the Heart of Africa,” UN Africa Renewal, January 2013, http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2013/china-heart-africa (accessed March 7, 2015).

8 Andréa de Souza Lobo, “Negociando pelo mundo: As rabidantes Cabo-Verdianas e suas rotas comerciais” [Negotiating around the world: The rabidantes of Cape Verde and their trade routes], in Filho, Wilson Trajano, ed., Travessias antropológicas: Estudos em contextos Africanos [Anthropological crossings: Studies in African contexts], 317–38 (Brasília: ABA, 2012)Google Scholar.

9 O Globo, “Concorrência chinesa reduz exportações do Brasil para a África” [Chinese competition reduces Brazilian exports to Africa], May 16, 2010, http://oglobo.globo.com/economia/concorrencia-chinesa-reduz-exportacoes-do-brasil-para-africa-3007490 (accessed March 7, 2015).

10 Mendes, Carmen Amado, “Macau in China's Relations with the Lusophone World,” Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 57 (2014): 225–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 MacauHub, “Forum Macau Will Soon Have Investment Fund for Projects in Portuguese-Speaking Countries,” February 28, 2013, http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2013/02/28/forum-macau-will-soon-have-investment-fund-for-projects-in-portuguese-speaking-countries/ (accessed March 7, 2015).

12 Namib Times, “Brand New Ship for Namibian Navy,” August 14, 2012.

13 China Military Online, “Chinese Navy Fleet Ends Visit to Namibia,” June 14, 2014, http://english.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2014-06/14/content_5960383.htm (accessed March 9, 2015).

14 DefesaNet, “Base Chinesa em Walvis Bay põe em xeque trabalho da Missão Naval do Brasil na Namíbia” [Chinese base in Walvis Bay threatens efforts by Brazil's naval mission in Namibia], January 24, 2015, http://www.naval.com.br/blog/2015/01/24/base-chinesa-em-walvis-bay-poe-em-xeque-trabalho-da-missao-naval-do-brasil-na-namibia/ (accessed March 8, 2015).

15 Siemon T. Wezeman and Pieter D. Wezeman, “Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2013,” SIPRI Fact Sheet, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, March 2014, http://books.sipri.org/files/FS/SIPRIFS1403.pdf (accessed March 8, 2015).

16 See, e.g., Odebrecht, “Odebrecht Defense and Technology,” n.d., http://odebrecht.com/en/businesses/our-businesses/defense-and-technology (accessed March 8, 2015).

17 African Union, “Common African Position on Security Council Reform,” March 8–9, 2005, Global Policy Forum, https://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/security-council-reform/41201.html?itemid=913 (accessed March 8, 2015).

18 Brazil is part of the G4, which also includes Japan, India, and Germany.

19 Abdenur, Adriana Erthal and de Souza-Neto, Danilo Marcondes, “Rising Powers and the Security-Development Nexus: Brazil's Engagement with Guinea-Bissau,” Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 9, no. 2, 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Thorsten Benner, “Brazil as a Norm Entrepreneur: The ‘Responsibility While Protecting’ Initiative,” GPPI Working Paper, Global Public Policy Institute, March 2013, http://www.gppi.net/fileadmin/user_upload/media/pub/2013/Benner_2013_Working-Paper_Brazil-RWP.pdf (accessed March 8, 2015).

21 Economic Times, “China Set to Expand Influence in Africa on Back of Xi Jinping's Trip,” March 31, 2013, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-03-31/news/38163340_1_african-leaders-south-africa-brics (accessed March 8, 2015).

22 Interview with author, Rio de Janeiro, December 2014.

23 Lobo, “Negociando pelo mundo,” op. cit. note 8.

24 Valor Econômico, “BNDES eleva rigor com empreiteira” [BNDES becomes more rigorous with construction companies], January 27, 2015, http://www.valor.com.br/financas/3879340/bndes-eleva-rigor-com-empreiteira (accessed March 8, 2015).