To this end, this paper looks at the following salient challenges:

Is China's success simply based on its offering Africa a more palatable economic ideology to the West?

Given the large weight of commodities in Sino-African trade, do engagements have meaningful positive domestic multipliers for Africa?

Are low-cost manufacturing goods from China leading to Africa's de-industrialisation?

Is a strategic China taking selfishly what it needs from an economically weak Africa with limited local consideration, extending limited gains to the host nation?

Have China's engagements provided rogue states in Africa with a viable trap-door from pressures to reform their political, economic and social institutions?

Are Chinese loans and bilateral assistance free-riding on Africa's past debt relief, adding new layers of additional debt?

The purpose of this paper is not necessarily to endorse a particular position, but rather to provide rational debate on each of the more contentious challenges to Sino-African ties and, in doing so, illuminate the noise currently dominating discourse with greater depth of understanding.