This article examines the relationship between Angola—one of Africa’s largest oil producers and China—Asia’s greatest power, to test the veracity of the realist and legalist models. It finds that in a fast-changing world where countries from the Global South are rising and Western powers are stagnating or declining, neither realist models of exploitation nor constructivist models of legalism stand empirical scrutiny. In the process of discussing Angola–China relations from 1957 to 2008, the article provides theoretical rigour to the counter-hegemonic model and combines it with the gender-based societal model to form a coherent explanatory framework that is superior to realism and legalism. The conclusion advocates a shift of attention by international relations theorists to South–South and gender analysis, increasingly relevant in the “post-American world”.