China's involvement in Africa has provoked much debate and discussion. Is China just the latest in a line of exploiters of Africa's rich natural resources, exploiters who put their own economic interests above humanitarian, environmental, or human rights concerns? Or is China's engagement an extension of 'SouthSouth solidarity'? Does China's involvement enable African countries to free themselves from the tyranny of debt and conditionality that, through two decades of structural adjustment programs, have reversed most of the gains of independence? Or is Africa swapping one tyranny for another?