From Diplomacy to Contestation: Paradigm Shifts in the Zambia-China Relations, 1964-2011
- January 13, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue XII, December 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
From Diplomacy to Contestation: Paradigm Shifts in the Zambia-China Relations, 1964-2011
Euston Kasongo Chiputa
Department of Historical and Archaeological Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
ABSTRACT
Between 1964 and 2011, relations between Zambia and China saw paradigm shifts from ‘mutual’ diplomatic relations to economic relations and eventually to contestation. China was an important pillar of the anti-colonial struggle in Zambia and the southern African sub-region. She provided economic and morale aid, logistical support, infrastructure building and education training for Zambia and other southern African countries. From 1964 until 1971, Zambia gave unflinching diplomatic support to China’s cause for readmission to the United Nations. The 1964-2011 period saw the Zambia-China relationship undergo trio paradigm shifts; from China being an aid and loans provider to being an investor, from Chinese state-directed aid and loans to Chinese state and private investments in Zambia. From 2000, the Zambian people contested what they saw as Chinese invasion of their economic space. This paper explores these paradigm shifts in the Zambia-China relations between 1964 and 2011. The paper investigates whether China’s relationship with Zambia gravitated from a benefactor-beneficiary relationship to ‘mutual’ benefit; punctuated by contestation by Zambians or whether the relations were tantamount to a Chinese “colonisation” of Zambia’s economic landscape. Data for this paper was collected from official Zambian and Chinese government records and correspondence at the National Archives of Zambia. Other data was collected from the Archives of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Lusaka and from newspapers and secondary sources. These sources were subjected to comprehensive literature analysis to arrive at the conclusion that 1964 and 2011 the Zambia-China relations underwent three paradigm shifts from ‘mutual’ diplomatic relations to economic relations and eventually to contestation between.
Key Words: Paradigm shifts, Infrastructure, Contestation, Tazara, Zambia-China From Diplomacy to Contestation: Paradigm Shifts in the Zambia-China Relations, 1964-2011
INTRODUCTION
Scholarly discourse on Chinese presence in Zambia and Zambia-China relations has been on ascendancy with rapid pace, just as has been Chinese investments in Zambia. Ina Eirin Eliassen, Pentao Li, Dominik Kopinski and Andrzej Polus, as well as the Oxford Analytica separately see the ascendancy of the China-Zambia relations premised on historical diplomatic ties buoyed by Chinese aid and loans to Zambia, and Zambia’s abundant natural resources and little expertise to harness them. China opened its first African embassy in Lusaka at Zambia’s independence in 1964. China built the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) from the port of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi (commissioned in 1975) in Central province of Zambia.
