Internationalisation of Chinese capital and the transformation of state-society relations in Ethiopia

Abstract

This study contributes to the growing literature on China’s growing economic relationship with Africa. Employing Ethiopia as a case study, the internationalisation of Chinese capital is interrogated with a view to determining how it is interacting with and reshaping the state and social forces within the Ethiopian state. This is achieved by using a theoretical framework that understands the state as a complex social relation. The social forces making up the Ethiopian state, especially those affected by and affecting Chinese capital, are examined through a comprehensive discussion of Ethiopia’s political and economic organisation and enduring state-society relations. Through carefully selected case studies in the Ethiopian economy such as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), leather, agricultural and infrastructural development sectors, the thesis argues that the internationalisation of Chinese capital is having two major effects on Ethiopian state-society relations, namely, the intensification of party-oriented capitalism and the informalisation of politics. Scholarship on China-Africa relations had until now analysed this relationship through mainly state-state lenses. A key contribution of this thesis is that it offers a new way of understanding the relationship between China and Ethiopia through an ‘inside out’ perspective that explores the changing nature of internal politics as a result of Chinese investment and commercial links. In particular the thesis seeks to disaggregate the Ethiopian state and the defining roles being played by its constituent social forces. We argue that a combination of internal and external forces involved such as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling party and Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), respectively, gives a basis for a better understanding of the direction, form and nature of state transformation in Ethiopia.