Drivers Behind Sino-African Trade

This study sought to find out the most important drivers behind trade between China and Africa to find out whether politics or market forces were the most important for Sino-African trade. The historical patterns were described to give a longer term perspective on trade. Then a theory on Chinese statecraft was used to see whether Sino-African trade fits into a conscious political strategy in China. In the second part of the study an econometric regression analysis based on trade gravity model to calculate which are the most important drivers behind Sino-African trade. The variables were split into two group political and market drivers. In the end it was found that market drivers were the most dominant drivers, but with significant political influence.