Africa in China's Foreign Policy

Brookings published in April 2014 an extensive analysis titled "Africa in China's Foreign Policy" by Yun Sun, a fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington.  The author notes that given the low priority of Africa in China's foreign policy agenda, African issues rarely reach the highest level of foreign policy decision making in the Chinese bureaucratic apparatus.  She also emphasizes, correctly in my view, that there is a constant tension between the narrow, mercantilist pursuit of economic interests in Africa and that pursuit's impact on the overall health of the Sino-African relationship and China's international image.