Back from a two-year hiatus we bring you an article from The Atlantic, The Next Empire, written by Howard French, former Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times. Howard travels through Africa and explores its relationship to China.

All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation? The author travels deep into the heart of Africa, searching for answers.

The article is very in-depth and carries a generally more positive tone towards the China-Africa relationship in comparison to other articles on the topic. Someone at The Atlantic should have proofread this though. There are spaces missing here and there…