Deconstructing Chinese Foreign Aid as a Soft Power Resource in Africa: A Recipient-Based Approach

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dc.contributor.advisorQiao-Franco, Guangyu
dc.contributor.authorPeters, Puck
dc.date.issued2024-07-12
dc.description.abstractIn recent decades, China has developed as a prominent economic power and a primary donor of international foreign aid. These developments are regarded within China’s wider strategic efforts to boost its international standing. This thesis investigates the efficacy of using foreign aid as an instrument of soft power in Africa and the degree to which the success depends on recipient populations’ characteristics. I argue that current research hypothesising that foreign aid is used to socialize recipients into political frames wrongly ascribes homogeneity to the recipient population by assuming that all social groups are equally receptive to soft power advancements. Building on norm localisation and elite-grassroots gap literature, I devise a theoretical framework explaining how privilege conditions shape recipients’ cognitive priors about China and the degree of political socialisation among elites and grassroots populations. Using a mixed methods approach, this thesis finds evidence for distinct grassroots and elite populations. Most notably, the thesis finds that cognitive priors among grassroots populations are shaped by the daily local realities of Chinese presence in Africa, as well as a deeply rooted distrust that is incongruent with the presented political and strategic narratives – hampering the internalisation of these ideas. These findings advance the understanding of the inconsistent translation of Chinese foreign aid into soft power in Africa. This conclusion informs advice that Chinese policymakers should prioritise minimising the negative effect on local communities rather than the presentation of grandiose political narratives, for daily negative experiences counter and overshadow the strategic political framing
dc.identifier.urihttps://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/18040
dc.language.isonl
dc.thesis.facultyFaculteit der Managementwetenschappen
dc.thesis.specialisationspecialisations::Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen::Master Political Science::International Relations
dc.thesis.studyprogrammestudyprogrammes::Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen::Master Political Science
dc.thesis.typeMaster
dc.titleDeconstructing Chinese Foreign Aid as a Soft Power Resource in Africa: A Recipient-Based Approach
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