The project examined the impacts of China's enhanced global role on African politics (and other donors) through case studies of Angola and Ghana and organised the research around 3 themes: (1) The changing patterns of Chinese involvement in Africa; (2)The politics of trade and investment, particularly how political actors perceive the Chinese impact and respond to it; and (3)Aid and regime stability in terms of China’s apparent 'hands off' approach to politics compared with other donors and their unwillingness to engage with aid harmonization efforts. For more information please see the end of award report which is available as downloadable pdf from this project record. This research assesses what impacts Chinese aid, trade and investment are having on the politics of specific African countries and the extent to which it excites geopolitical competition. This will be examined through case studies of Angola and Ghana, which represent different examples of China’s development ‘partnerships’ in Africa. Angola possesses oil resources that China desperately needs, whereas Ghana lacks strategic resources, but is an important market and political ally.

The research is based on semi-structured interviews with opinion leaders and case studies of specific Sino-African collaborations. The interviews are with individuals(Chinese business people in Ghana and Angola; international policy makers; Chinese policy makers), though in 8 cases there were two or three respondents: Angola (44), Ghana(31), China(6), USA(5) and UK (2).