Max Rebol

Pragmatism and Non-interference: Explaining China's Soft Power in Africa Max Rebol

While the rise of Chinese soft power in Africa is widely acknowledged, reasons for this sea change are contested. As the title suggests, this research largely focuses on two of them: Non- Interference and pragmatism. This paper introduces the concept of passive values of attraction, which is defined as the respect for a different path of development, the anti-thesis to a neoliberal one-size-fits-all- approach, or the commitment to multi-polarity. The Chinese non-interference policy is hereby seen as a manifestation of China's pragmatism in Africa. It is attractive because it gives Africa the flexibility to try out different policies rather than coercing the continent into a certain direction. What creates China's soft power in Africa is a system which bases its legitimacy on the improvement of living conditions of the people, rather than on the spread of an ideology, even if this ideology comes in the name of democracy or human rights.