Making Sense of China's Rush into Africa

The Jackson School of International Studies presents a lecture by Associate Professor Howard French about how the boom in Chinese migration to Africa was set into motion by Chinese policy initiatives and geopolitical changes across three continents beginning in the early 1990s.

Over the last fifteen years between one and two million people have pulled up stakes in China to build new lives in Africa. This talk will look at how the boom in Chinese migration to Africa was set into motion by Chinese policy initiatives and geopolitical changes across three continents beginning in the early 1990s.

Howard French, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, is a former New York Times senior foreign correspondent for China, former NYT bureau chief in Shanghai, then in West Africa and Central Africa. His most recent book, China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa (2014), has been reviewed and discussed broadly in the international media.

Sponsored by the China Studies Program, the East Asia Center, the Center for Global Studies, and the African Studies Program.