GLOBALIZATION AND CORONA VIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC; THE VULNERABILITY OF AFRICA IS THE OPPORTUNITY OF CHINA

Abstract

The sporadic spread of Wuhan COVID-19 and its dreadful havoc on humans and economies worldwide have shown the dark side of globalization in this era. As such, various researches are being unfolded in different fields currently. It is most likely China will face both political and economic persecutions from the US, European countries and the G7 in the post pandemic periods. Against this backdrop, an attempt was made in this paper to philosophically project how African vulnerability to COVID-19 could erupt another series of business opportunities for China. It could be submitted that COVID-19 pandemic will change the structure of diplomatic and trade relations of China with the rest of the world in general and Africa in particular. Though, China is the biggest Africa`s trade partner and top Africa`s creditor concurrently with massive investments in the continent. This makes Africa to be vulnerable to the whip and caprices of the world`s second biggest economy. If china refuses to grant debt relief to Africa, majority of highly indebted countries will be in debt trap soonest. Consequently, this paper suggested that Africa should think outside the box by exploiting and developing untapped natural resources to their full capacity in order to compete with their counterparts in the global market. Also, Africa needs to explore industrial production that can utilized its raw materials and consequently leverage on intra Africa trade given the opportunity orchestrated by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. After all, COVID-19 spread to Africa as a bad by-product of globalization