Over the years, the Peoples Republic of China has meant different things to different people and has at the same time evoked different emotions depending on where one stands on the ideological spectrum. As with people, the same with nation states in the international community. Confronted with the reality of a mega state, peopled by a sixth of the world population and whose accomplishments are confounding, friends and foes alike, talk of "The China Threat".

The question I will try to answer in this essay, is what is meant by the China threat and how did or could this scary term have emerged? Is China really a threat to anybody? Where Africa stands with China and what in relation to prevailing reality does the China threat mean.

Both in ancient and medieval times, China was a nation to be reckoned with all through the centuries. However it took the end of the Second World War and the emergence of communist China which in worldview was opposed to the then dominant western world for the term "The China Threat" to emerge.

After the Second World War, what became known as the China threat include the threat of Chinese political ideas embedded in communist thoughts and practices according to the teachings of the late Chinese Communists leader, Chairman Mao. Communist ideology was the opposite of capitalism and liberalism as practised by the West as both in their conception had different and competing ideas about how a state should be organised as well as the ultimate destiny of mankind.

Second, the Chinese threat referred to the huge Chinese population, which even by 1945 was still the largest in the world. Anyone aware of the relationship between a well educated or skilled and disciplined population and wealth creation would of course see the Chinese as a threat. In 1945, however the Chinese population as we know it today was not well educated and actually was a burden on China.

Third, the term meant the potential of the Chinese nation; with its huge natural resources and the use this could be put to by a focused, disciplined and responsible leadership