Why do We Need ‘Myth-Busting’ in the Study of Sino-African Relations?

The literature on Sino-African relations has debated whether or not China’s growing presence is a threat to Western or African interests, and has come to the conclusion that China’s behavior is not particularly unique. Many countries, including Western liberal democracies, similarly give aid to local autocrats to secure natural resources. Why, then, has so much effort been made to come to this perhaps unsurprising conclusion? We argue for two reasons: first, the academic study of Chinese foreign policy remains heavily influenced by Western states’ policy relevance, resulting in an almost exclusive concern with the idea of a China threat; second, Eurocentrism in IR has led to the view that non-European/Western powers are different entities that would somehow threaten the moral fabric of the international order.