News from the China's Monitor

African and Chinese traders in Southern China and South Africa

Issue 61 – April 2011

The April issue of the China Monitor focuses on the lives and societies of the Chinese and African small- to medium business owners and traders that have set up shop in both Africa and China, on the back of the ever-swelling wave of Sino-African interaction. While much focus rests on the ‘macro’ elements of this relationship- billion dollar resource deals, and the grand pageantry of international diplomacy; the analysis cannot be complete without a focus on the ‘micro’ aspects of the relationship also

In the Policy Watch, researcher Yang Yang, a Master of Philosophy student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, focuses on the tens of thousands of African traders that have flooded intp Guangzhou, the centre of China’s “world factory”, near Hong Kong.

For the Commentary piece, PhD candidate Chen Fenlang, from Xiamen University, China, turns our attention to the communities of Chinese traders and businesses growing up around South Africa’s Gauteng province. This piece is drawn from her participation in a joint research project between Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration (CRUISE), the CCS and Xiamen University, looking at Chinese migrant populations in Johannesburg.

The China Briefing subsequently covers some of the most prominent China-Africa stories from the last month, drawn from our Weekly Briefings