China’s Science Museum Gift to Ethiopia: Rethinking Shared Agency in Industrialization-Driven Development Aid

In 2022, China introduced Ethiopia's Science Museum as a diplomatic gift. With its AI research centre focused on developing practical commercial outlets, Ethiopia's Science Museum enables China and Ethiopia to strategically align policy objectives and economic stakeholders within a win-win public–private partnership. This article explores the notions of coconstructed gift and shared agency through a jointly handled Rubik's Cube model applied to development aid. It demonstrates that while serving the recipient's interests, Ethiopia's Science Museum simultaneously constitutes China's new development aid tool, that is, an upgraded version of Guangdong Science Center, the China-supported museum in Senegal and China-aided Industrial Parks in Ethiopia. A gift-level analysis subsequently offers a counterpoint to conventional critiques on China's self-serving aid to Africa and opens new avenues for research on industrialization-driven China–Africa cooperation.

Wu Junfang, Jérémie Eyssette

Journal of International Development