Special report China in Africa
TheEconomistMay28th 2022 3A partnership of unequals
N
o other countrycomes near the depth and breadth of Chi
na’s engagement in Africa. It is Africa’s largest trading partner,
bilateral creditor and a crucial source of infrastructure invest
ment. Chinese firms account for an estimated oneeighth of the
continent’s industrial output. Chinesebuilt digital infrastructure
is critical to the platforms on which Africans communicate. Politi
cal, military and security ties are becoming closer. Understanding
the ChinaAfrica relationship is key to understanding the conti
nent—and the global ambitions of Xi Jinping.
The modern history of this relationship has three phases. Dur
ing the cold war China supplied aid, constructed the odd railway
or parliament building and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to export
Maoism. But the main thrust of its relationship was political. Chi
na saw newly independent African countries as potential allies. In
1971, when the unvoted for China to take over its seat from Taiwan,
26 African countries sided with Mao. “It is our African brothers
who have carried us into the un,” he said.
The second phase, from the 1990s, was defined by economics.
For a booming China, Africa mattered. Oil and metals were im
ported from the continent; surpluses of money and manufactur
ing went the other way. To African countries that had just thrown
off oneparty rule and ended years of stagnation, China gave use
ful infrastructure. China went from net recipient of aid to “lender
of first resort”, notes a new book, “Banking on Beijing”, by Axel
Dreher and colleagues. From 2000 to 2014 Chinese aid and, espe
cially, loans meant only America gave more development finance.
More than half China’s development projects were in Africa.
This period still shapes thinking about ChinaAfrica relations.
But, as Daniel Large of the Central European University argues in
another book, “A New Era” has emerged under Mr Xi, who has
made four tours of Africa as president and nine in all. He “has been
remaking China’s Africa relations in his own image,” argues Mr
Large. (Barack Obama was the last American president to visit.)
Economic ties still count. But since 2016 China’s lending to Af
rica has shrunk. It builds fewer megaprojects, putting more em
phasis on trade and investment. And politics has again become a
driving force. China’s attitude to Africa is part of Mr Xi’s assertive
foreign policy. His approach gives a greater role to the Chinese
Communist Party, which has a membership larger than the popu
lation of all but four African countries.
The West is alarmed. Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama’s secretary of
state, spoke of a “new colonialism”. Mike Pompeo, who was secre
tary of state under Donald Trump, talked of China’s “empty prom
ises”. In 2021 the Biden administration proposed Build Back Better
World (b3w) as an effort to counter China—a “valuesdriven” at
tempt to finance infrastructure in poor countries. The euhas
launched Global Gateway, a similar plan. Ursula von der Leyen,
president of the European Commission, says that, unlike China,
the euwants to create “links and not dependencies”.
Yet these efforts have flaws. b3wis little more than a new labelTo counter China’s growing role in Africa the West must first understand it, say Gady Epstein and John McDermott