热带地理

TROPICAL GEOGRAPHY ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 530-537.doi: 10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.002960

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Evolution of Domestic Spatial Pattern of Sino-Africa Trade

TONG Ruifeng，REN Hang，WANG Xin，WANG Huan，ZHANG Zhenke   

  1. （Center of African Studies，Nanjing University，Nanjing 210023，China）
  • Online:2017-07-05 Published:2017-07-05

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Abstract: The Sino-Africa trade has developed rapidly in the past ten years. The volume of Sino-African trade in China's foreign trade has been increasing year by year, from 2% in 2002 to 5.06% in 2013. By the platform of the Sino-Africa Cooperation Forum, China and Africa have conducted exchanges and cooperation in the field of economic and trade in depth, and China is already Africa's largest trading partner. With the increasing of Sino-Africa trade volume, there is a different trade pattern. The regional differences are obvious in China. At present, the academic research on Sino-Africa trade focuses mainly on trade characteristics, trade structure and trade effect. Through literature review, it is found that few existing studies involve the provinces pattern of Sino-Africa trade in China. Based on the data of trade about provinces (cities/districts) in China with Africa, this paper analyzed the evolution in the spatial distribution of the trade through the perspective of differences in increment and dependence. By the model of diversity index and evenness index, the study discusses the Sino-Africa regional differences situation and makes a comprehensive analysis in depth. At the same time, this paper made some prospects from the analysis. The result shows that: The Sino-Africa trade has developed rapidly from the year of 2002 to 2013, the trade of Sino-Africa is concentrated on the coastal areas. The trade volume is from 9.746 billion dollars to 179.47 billion dollars in the coastal areas in the last 12 years. For example, Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, six provinces are the main provinces in the trade volume in Africa, accounting for 77% of the total trade in 2013. Because Chinese provinces (cities/districts) have different resources natural endowments and trade policies, the provinces (cities/districts) have obvious differences in import and export trade with Africa. From the rate of export-import, the trade is classified into four types in general: “continue to decline”, “rise with fluctuation”, “first rise then fall”, “irregular fluctuation”. In the northern regions export increment is less than that of import increment, while that in the southern regions is opposite. The inland areas and coastal areas show an opposite development pattern in the growth rate distribution and the increment distribution. The coastal areas dominated the Sino-Africa trade pattern. The growth rate of the inland trade with Africa is higher than that of the coast areas. Taking the year of 2008 as a turning point, the provincial distribution pattern shows the characteristic of gradually dispersing equilibrium after the concentration on a few provinces (cities/districts). The inland areas, with the opportunity of economy and politics, are developing fast in recent years. The Northern provinces (cities/districts) are mainly made up of resource intensive industries. With the increasing consumption of resources and the economic transformation and upgrading, the demand for alternative resources imported from Africa has been increasing. The southern provinces (cities/districts) are mainly made up of the export processing manufacturing industries, and the demand for Africa's mineral resources is relatively low. On the contrary, Africa is becoming an important export destination for these southern provinces in recent years. Although the spatial distribution pattern is becoming balanced in recent years, the trade of inland areas with Africa is relatively small. Serious homogenization is a question that should not be neglected. In the future, provinces (cities/districts) should be based on their own characteristics and advantages of enterprise to develop trade with Africa. In the process of economic development in the future, the provinces (cities/districts) need to seize the opportunity to maintain the pace of development. Relying on the national strategy of “The Belt and Road”, with the help of Africa’s huge economic market potential, it can narrow the regional differences, balance the regional trade structure, and improve the current situation of regional economic in China.

Key words: Sino-Africa trade, degree of foreign trade dependence, diversity index, evenness index