Positioning Ourselves on China in Africa: An Interview with Hairong Yan*

Hairong Yan is an associate professor of the Department of Applied Social Science at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She specializes in politics of development, China– Africa links, rural-urban relations, socialism and cooperative economy, and agrarian change in China. Due to the global pandemic, all work has gone digital, including this conversation. In this interview, Dr Yan offered her insights on China’s location in the current world system, China’s involvements inAfrica, and thepossibility of aGlobal South solidarity. What’s more, she also shares her experiences of teaching Global China and China–Africa engagements in Hong Kong – a postcolonial Chinese city whose population is still trying to work out its relationships with its colonial past, the West and the Chinese mainland.