The United States and China in Africa

The China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies published in April 2017 a policy brief titled "The United States and China in Africa: What Does [Do] the Data Say?" by Janet Eom, Jyhjong Hwang, Lucas Atkins, Yunnan Chen, and Siqi Zhou.

The policy brief looks at trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and loans. China leads the United States by a wide margin in terms of trade with Africa and government-sponsored loans to Africa. The United States leads in FDI stock in Africa. The policy brief notes that data for FDI are poor. Chinese data do not report FDI flows from offshore financial centers. The US figures may also significantly understate the total. CARI shows US FDI stock in Africa at the of 2015 of about $60 billion and no US flows to Africa in 2015.

A 21 March 2017 US Congressional Research Report puts US FDI stock in Africa at the end of 2015 on a historical case basis at $257 billion and the flow for 2015 at $249 million.