Assessing Western Discourse on ‘Chinese Neocolonialism’ in the Global South

Western discourse on the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) presence in Africa and the broader Global South is predominantly framed in terms of neocolonialism and imperialism. Even if its most important claims – the PRC as a solely predatory actor; its support for authoritarianism; and the debt-trap diplomacy – have been largely debunked by academic research, this approach remains dominant among media and policy circles in the West. What is most significant about this discourse is not the falsehood of its claims, but the inconsistency in the standards applied to the PRC and the West and the ideological attitude displayed by both liberal and conservative Western sources, especially when compared to the more positive – or at least nuanced – views of Beijing in the Global South itself.
Keywords: People’s Republic of China; Africa; colonialism; neocolonialism; imperialism; Global South