Postcolonial experiences of Chinese aid: Encountering and welcoming South–South aid from the middle

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explores how public servants in aid‐recipient countries perceive and encounter the development structures and normative discourses of South–South partnerships. The paper draws on interviews with senior public servants in the Antigua and Barbuda government who interface directly with Chinese aid delivery. The public servants perceive that ‘Northern’ development models have largely failed and that ‘Southern’ donors can facilitate alternative development pathways. They understand that South–South partnerships give aid‐recipient countries greater control over their development futures, invoking some of the original radicalism of South–South partnerships. The public servants also perceive that Western critiques of Chinese aid are underpinned by orientalism, and they reject notions that they are being passively integrated into the Chinese government's global vision. Yet, they do not passively internalise the normative discourses on South–South partnerships. This paper advances a multi‐scalar postcolonial geographical analysis of South–South partnerships and will be of interest to those exploring how aid‐recipient countries navigate the politics and power relations of the contemporary global aid landscape. The paper also advances debates on how subaltern geopolitics play out in the context of increasing South–South partnerships. Finally, with its focus on South–South partnerships, the paper contributes to the aid ethnographies literature.