Is China a ‘rogue donor’, or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty? Media reports about huge aid packages, support for pariah regimes, regiments of Chinese labor, and the ruthless exploitation of workers and natural resources in some of the poorest countries in the world have sparked fierce debates. China’s tradition of secrecy fuels rumors and speculation. In her latest book, The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, and in this presentation, Professor Brautigam tackles the myths and explains the realities of China's growing economic embrace of Africa.
Professor Deborah Brautigam teaches in the International Development Program at American University's School of International Service in Washington, DC. She has been a recipient of a Fulbright Senior Regional Research Award for Africa, and a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Grant, and has also been awarded fellowships from the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Smith Richardson Foundation. She is the author of The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Chinese Aid and African Development: Exporting Green Revolution (St. Martin's Press, 1998), and co-editor of Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent (Cambridge University Press, 2008).