On Economic Freedom, Africa Should Be More Strategic Than China

Morgan Lorraine Roach / March 03, 2011

African Union chairman Jean Ping’s recent op-ed espouses China as the model of economic excellence to which African countries should aspire. Ping praises China’s globalization, particularly in enterprise development, trade, and investment in Africa. However, Ping structures his argument around a misinformed premise.

He assumes that since China is a major business partner with Africa ($43.7 billion in investment), it provides an economic model that will spur growth and provide resilience against market decline in African countries. This assumption is fundamentally flawed. Africa is not capable of emulating China, nor should it try to.

Many African countries, burdened by years of political instability, have feeble economic infrastructure. They also lack the market size and massive work force that China possesses. China is therefore an ill-fitting model. (more…)