China’s Relations with Africa

Analysis of the book by David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman, “China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement”

If you want to know everything about the political and security relations between China and Africa (including North Africa), this is the book to read. This work skips over trade exchanges or Chinese infrastructure projects, which have been analyzed by numerous publications, to focus on often overlooked issues: the relationships between China and African regional and sub-regional organizations, party-to-party relations between the Chinese Communist Party and many African political organizations, the Chinese propaganda and education apparatus in Africa, Beijing’s management of its security interests in Africa, from access to minerals to food security, the protection of its companies and nationals, military cooperation, Chinese participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations and the fight against piracy, particularly in the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea…

China maintains diplomatic relations with 53 out of 54 African countries (only Eswatini, loyal to Taiwan, is missing). It continues to primarily rely on the bilateral relations it has developed with these states to push its agenda and initiatives, particularly in terms of development – such as Xi Jinping’s New Silk Roads – and security. But it mobilizes many other instruments to increase its influence in Africa as well as in the rest of the Global South, with the stated goal of reducing the presence of what it calls “Western hegemony” and its “post-colonial” behaviors. Certainly, this growing influence is based on unprecedented economic penetration. But the Chinese government strengthens its position using a wide range of means, from funding African media to training civil and military personnel, from building military infrastructure to multiplying port projects that could potentially become dual-use facilities, from delivering information technology, with the help of companies like Huawei, to cooperation in space and cybersecurity.

Very comprehensive yet concise, this book was published just as China was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, a health crisis that, according to the authors, generally slowed down and negatively affected Sino-African relations. It sometimes has the aspects of a directory, providing lists of countries and organizations without being able to fully provide the information necessary to appreciate the diversity of situations. Additionally, one would have liked to find more elements of comparison with other external presences, not only from former colonial powers or the United States but also from emerging countries like India, Turkey, or Brazil. Nevertheless, this work is useful. It clearly shows how China is not only welcome in Africa, developing a real convergence of views with most of the continent’s states on many issues, but also has established a new form of hegemony on a continent whose future it is helping to shape, a future in which it deeply believes, and rightly so.