China and the changing context of development in Sudan

Daniel Large looks at China's relationship with Sudan. He suggests that by far the most significant and consequential area where China has and will continue to impact on Sudan is oil. After under a decade as an oil exporter, northern Sudan's current oil-fuelled economic growth is primarily benefitting an elite but is indicative of the underlying evolution in the basis of resource extraction and associated politics. This threatens to develop in a manner that departs from previous periods of Sudanese history in terms of the opportunities oil revenue presents for the ruling elite in Sudan. The outstanding question for Sudan is the developmental implications of petro-politics on the Nile and the spectre of an emerging resource curse scenario.