On 28th May 2018, the first event of the Fudan-LSE Lecture Series was held in Room 826, Wenke Building. The event was jointly held by the School of International Relations & Public Affairs (SIRPA) and the Dr. Seaker Chan Center for Comparative Political Development Studies. Professor Yijia Jing, deputy dean of the SIRPA, hosted the event. Professor Chris Alden, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), delivered the lecture “A Chinese Model for Africa problem-solving, learning and limits”.

Professor Alden first clarified three key concepts which are model, learning and policy transfer. Models can be best understood as vehicles for policy learning but can serve purposes beyond the content of policy in terms of cooperation strategies and co-constitution of shared identities. Transferring that lesson is a crucial aspect of the transformative process, and necessarily focuses on policy makers and implementing agents embedded within state institutions. Targeting the right individuals and departments, coupled to developing appropriate methodologies of policy transfer, is crucial to developing the conditions for learning to transpire.

In examining the limits of Chinese solutions to African problems, and what is involved in the identification, transfer and nature of learning itself. Professor Alden identified key problems, including policy transfer and African institutions, and feigned learning rather than a process with meaningful, sustained impact on targeted actors and their policies. Recognizing the role of the model helps us to understand how China’s knowledge production problematizes the idea of Africa and refracts its own preoccupations and perceptions of the development experience in approaching the continent. China’s model for African development, founded on its own experience, offers a deceptively clear route to winning development gains.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Alden discussed more questions that are related to the topic with the audience.