The “Hunan Model”: From “African Shenzhen” to China’s “Africa Shenzhen”

 

 

Abstract

In 2018 the world’s first and second largest economies, the USA and China, entered a trade war. The role of the USA’s soybean exports to China early therein presented a challenge to the bilateral food security-trade status quo. Months thereafter - perhaps in response - China launched two national China-Africa trade-focused platforms: a cooperation zone to overcome bottlenecks impeding economic ties; and a trade expo to elevate trade flows, particularly of African agricultural exports, in Hunan Province This article argues that the unsustainability of China’s resource-extraction-based “Angola Model” of ties, and Hunan’s unique industrial competitiveness in areas like construction and agriculture, and historic role in both China-Africa trade and China’s contemporary success in ending hunger and extreme poverty, are fundamental to a new ‘Hunan Model’ of ties. President Trump’s return and South Africa’s G20 Chair in 2025 are likely to advance the relevance of the Model. By unpacking the global and China-Africa context of a “Hunan Model” and the associated granular policy details from fieldwork and Chinese policy documents and media this article draws attention to the new era in China-Africa ties that may also shape world development going forward.