Forbes published on 1 July 2026 an article titled "Ethiopia: From China's Star Pupil to Africa's Free Agent" by Wesley Alexander Hill.
For years, China found an eager partner in Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which ruled Ethiopia and embraced elements of China's development model. It delivered impressive economic growth for many years, but it also contained structural weaknesses that Beijing's own system largely avoided.
The rise of Abiy Ahmed marked the end of this era. Ethiopia's current economic strategy represents one of Africa's most consequential experiments in macroeconomic liberalization.
