ISSUES RELATING TO CHINA AS THE EMERGING WORLD ECONOMIC POWER AND ITS INVESTMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

China’s remarkable economic growth and relative stability have seen it taking on bigger international roles as an economic and political power of its own kind and in its own right. In fact, it has been opined that “there is unequivocal evidence that China has positioned itself as (the) economically relevant country in the world in recent times such that, it is described as the world’s emerging giant among emerging economies, and as ‘economic powerhouse’.” Being this planet’s most populous nation and having the second largest economy in the world at about USD $14.0 trillion and increasing, China has firmly established its dominance in Asia and, to an extent, globally. The country’s massive growth in the manufacturing sector has also meant the ever-increasing need to source for the scarce natural resources from the outside, and Africa has gradually become one of the most important supplies of raw materials for the Chinese economy to meet its continued growth. Arguably, both trade and investments are an important part of China’s activities in African countries with a broad interest across oil, construction, solid minerals, and agricultural sectors, and this has led some ‘attentive public’ to accuse the Chinese power of neo-colonialism. Hence, this paper examines the pros and cons of China’s investment in Africa (especially Nigeria) along the lines of recent happenings to discern the true intent of these investment, and determine whether China is either a neo-colonialist, an exploiter or a veritable trade partner within the international relations paradigm.