Future of the China-Africa Relationship

 The Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory, an Accra-based think tank, published in January 2026 a paper titled "Why People Matter: Reimagining the Future of Africa-China Cooperation" by Paul Frimpong.

The Africa-China connection needs to shift from a primarily state-to-state model toward a society-to-society approach.  Governments remain essential, but durable cooperation is built when universities, collaborate, journalists exchange perspectives, businesses form partnerships, and communities interact directly.

A second shift is from delivery-focused engagement to experience and impact-focused cooperation.  Success should be measured not only by outputs--kilometers of road or megawatts of power--but by outcomes such as skills development, technology absorption, and local enterprise growth.

The third shift is from delivery exposure to mutual learning.  People-to-people exchanges are most effective when they are reciprocal, allowing Africans and Chinese alike to learn, adapt, and innovate together.  This mutuality strengthens trust and reinforces the principle of partnership.

Minnesota Immigration Crackdown Impacts Somali Businesses

 The Associated Press published on 18 January 2026 an article titled "Somali Businesses Struggle during the Minneapolis ICE Crackdown" by Sarah Raza.

Minneapolis/St. Paul has the largest concentration of Somali Americans in the United States.  The crackdown on immigrants in the Twin Cities has forced many Somali businesses to shut down.

China's Alibaba Expands E-Commerce in Africa

 BusinessTech published on 10 November 2025 an article titled "Another Chinese Company Coming after Shein and Temu in South Africa" by Malcolm Libera.  

China's Alibaba has selected Durban, South Africa, as the hub for its Africa digital operations.  It is part of Alibaba's strategy to deepen its presence in African consumer markets.  

Sudan: Business Connections between Rapid Support Forces and UAE

 The Sentry published in October 2025 a report titled "The RSF's Business Network in the UAE."

The report details the extensive business connections between Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and private companies in the UAE.  

China's Malign Influence in Africa and US Counter Strategy

 The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on 4 June 2025 titled "China's Malign Influence in Africa."  The senior Africa Bureau official in the State Department, Troy Fitrell, provided the testimony.

Responding to the title of the hearing, Fitrell denounced Beijing's assertive, government-backed strategies to capture African market share.  He said China's strategy for economic dominance in Africa relies on a centralized, state-directed, and nationally resourced approach to dominating global markets and strategic supply chains.

Fitrell devoted most of his prepared testimony to the Trump administration's strategy for Africa, which will focus on investment-led and trade-driven growth.  It will prioritize robust commercial engagement, recognizing and treating African nations as equal partners in trade and investment.  He then identified six targeted actions:

1.  Making commercial diplomacy a core priority across US embassies;

2.  Promoting private-sector-identified market reforms with African governments;

3.  Implementing high-quality infrastructure projects;

4.  Sending commercial diplomacy missions with private sector representatives;

5.  Connecting export-ready US companies with African opportunities; and

6.  Reforming US trade and financing tools to better compete with China's swift and risk-tolerant financing model.  

Fitrell rightly concludes that "the strategy's success relies on U.S. companies expanding into new markets and African partners enabling environments for transparent and lasting commerce."

Comment:  As someone who has been following African affairs since the early 1960s, including 37 years in the State Department and most of it in the Africa Bureau, there is nothing new about this strategy except perhaps the emphasis being put on it by the Trump administration.  But other administrations, especially the Reagan administration, also gave commercial diplomacy a high priority.  All of them were disappointed with the results in Africa.  In the final analysis, the strategy is highly dependent on the willingness of the American private sector to engage in Africa.  Private sector enthusiasm will be determined not only by the priority given to it by the Trump administration, but the tangible incentives offered by the US government.  This is where China has a big advantage.

Is the US government prepared to provide sufficient on the ground staffing at all embassies in Africa?  Will it increase resources for the US Export-Import Bank, US International Development Finance Corporation, and Millennium Challege Corporation?  Will high level Trump administration officials lead trade and investment missions to Africa?  If the response to all of these questions is affirmative, the strategy might make a difference.

But it does not help when the announcement of the Africa commercial strategy is immediately followed by a full or partial ban on travel to the United States by 10 African countries.  Even if they are not among the most important trade and investment prospects, it sends the wrong message to all of Africa that America is not really open for business.    

Zambia Gags Documentary Critical of Chinese Investment

 The Committee to Protect Journalists posted on 6 June 2025 a press release titled "Zambia Court Blocks Film Investigating Chinese Businesses."  

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Zambia sued a privately-owned news outlet and obtained a gag order from the Lusaka High Court to prevent airing of a documentary titled "Chinese investment in Zambia: the good, the bad, and the dangerous."  The Chinese Chamber of Commerce said the documentary disparages and demeans Chinese investment in Zambia.    

Chinese Retailers in Africa: Loved by Consumers Hated by Local Competition

 The Guardian published on 12 February 2025 an article "Fair and Square? Chinese Retail Chain's Expansion Rankles Kenyan Rivals" by Carlos Mureithi.  

The expansion of China Square retail chain in Nairobi pleases Kenyan consumers because of its low prices but angers local Kenyan retailers who argue China has created an unequal playing field.  China Square is now operating across Africa.  

Chinese Communist Party Diplomacy in Africa

 Megatrends Afrika published in October 2024 a policy brief titled "Pragmatic, Strategic and Wide-Reaching: The CCP's Party Diplomacy in Africa" by Christine Hackenesch and Julia Bader.  

The policy brief analyses recent patterns and motives of China's party diplomacy in Africa.  It finds that the CCP maintains close ties with the main ruling parties in southern Africa and in some countries in East Africa, while engaging with a broad range of parties in countries in North Africa.  Beijing's party diplomacy in Africa seeks to promote China's core foreign policy interests, advance an alternative narrative on global China, and normalize China's authoritarian system.

Questionable Chinese Business Deal Topples Zambian Foreign Minister

 The Geneva-based think tank Diplomatic Affairs posted on 27 December 2023 an article titled "Zambia's Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo Resigns Amidst Allegations of Improper Business Dealings" by Cora Sulleyman.

A video circulating on Zambian social media showed two unidentified individuals counting stacks of money on a table.  The two persons in the video allegedly were Zambia's foreign minister and a Chinese businessman.  

What China Learns from African Managerial Practices

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published in October 2022 a study entitled "What China Is Learning from West African Managerial Practices" by Abdoulkadre Ado, University of Ottawa.

Investing in African joint ventures has enabled Chinese cultural adaptation by emphasizing training programs in languages commonly spoken in Africa, embracing local management styles, and assimilating some local practices.

African governments, businesses, and corporate managers should explore further ways to incentivize Chinese government decisionmakers and Chinese businesses to use joint ventures more often as the vehicle for their investments in Africa.  They should also encourage Chinese organizations to embrace the use of local languages, especially for conducting business, and to train more Chinese to use African managerial philosophies that have proven to respect local values while being effective in African markets. 

US Government Urges US Companies to Avoid Doing Business with Sudanese State-Owned Enterprises

 The U.S. Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Commerce, and Department of Labor issued on 23 May 2022 an advisory titled "Risks and Considerations for U.S. Businesses Operating in Sudan."

Following the seizure of power by Sudan's military on 25 October 2021, the military is in effective control of all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), of which there are at least 650.  The advisory warns that investing with, forming partnerships, or facilitating the expansion of SOEs and military-controlled companies in Sudan may entail reputational risks for U.S. businesses and individuals.  

This advisory relates specifically to SOEs and military-controlled companies.  The U.S. government does not seek to curtail or discourage responsible investment or business activities in Sudan with civilian-owned Sudanese counterparts.  

China-Benin Business Negotiations

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published in April 2022 a study titled "Negotiating Local Business Practices with China in Benin" by Folashade Soule.  

The study shows how Chinese and Beninese authorities negotiated the establishment of a business center in the capital of Benin and, above all, how Beninese authorities made Chinese negotiators adapt to local labor, construction, and legal norms and put pressure on their Chinese counterparts.

Chinese Business Practices in the DRC Cobalt Industry

 The Leiden Asia Centre published in October 2021 a major study titled "Chinese Approaches to Overseas Responsible Business: Insights from the DRC Cobalt Industry" by Stacey Links, Tycho de Feijter, and Jonas Lammertink.

Part I of the report discusses the features of Chinese approaches to responsible business, predominantly defined in China as corporate social responsibility.  Part II investigates how the findings of Part I unfold in practice by analyzing Chinese responsible business approaches in the cobalt mining sector of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

American and Chinese Companies Collaborate on Upstream Oil Project in Uganda

 Upstream posted on 9 June 2021 an article titled "US-Sino Pairing Scoops $2bn Contract to Build Major Oil Facilities in Uganda" by Iain Esau.

A consortium of US-based McDermott International and China's Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation have secured a conditional letter of award for a $1.9 billion contract to build the upstream facilities for TotalEnergies oil facilities on the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda.  

In the current Sino-American political environment, this is a rare and significant case of business cooperation in Africa by American and Chinese companies.

Private Chinese Security Companies in Africa

The Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies China Africa Research Initiative published in March 2020 a study titled "The Footprint of Chinese Private Security Companies in Africa" by Alessandro Arduino, National University of Singapore.

China has seen throughout Africa how limiting the sole reliance on economic development is for insuring security and sustainable development. As a result, China is looking increasingly to private security companies to provide security in high risk areas of Africa.

Namibia-China Relations

The Institute for Public Policy Research at the Hanns Seidel Foundation Namibia published in October 2019 a major report titled "Risks and Rewards: Making Sense of Namibia-China Relations" by Dietrich Remmert and Rakkel Andreas.

This is a broad overview of the Namibia-China relationship. The authors conclude that Namibia's engagement with China can be described as unbalanced--similar to Zambia or Angola. Inviestment and trade is targeted towards a few sectors only and Namibia has as yet to establish a coherent and sensible strategy of cooperation with China.

Sharp Increase in Air Travel between Africa and China

Quartz Africa posted on 28 July 2019 an article titled "Air Traffic between China and Africa Has Jumped 630% in the Last Decade" by Youyou Zhou.

On an average day, eight direct flights operate between China and countries in Africa. In 2010, airlines averaged less than one flight a day. The airline fleets operating between China and Africa are capable of carrying about 850,000 passengers annually. Ethiopian Airlines operates almost half of the 2,616 annual flights.

Russia To Host African Leaders

Pambazuka News published on 12 March 2019 an article titled "Sochi To Host African Leaders" by Kester Kenn Klomegah, a Ghanaian journalist.

Russia has agreed to host African leaders at a Russia-Africa summit at Sochi in October 2019. This article provides comments from Africans as to what Russia needs to do to improve its position in Africa.

Top Priorities for Africa in 2019

Brookings has just released its "Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent in 2019" edited by Brahima S. Coulibaly.

It contains the following chapters:

--Bolstering good governance: The imperative of inclusion and efficiency.
--Managing debt and mobilizing resources: A delicate balance to sustain economic growth.
--Harnessing Africa's youth dividend: A new approach for large-scale job creation.
--Fixing fragility: The role of the private sector and local institutions.
--Africa's untapped business potential: Countries, sectors, and strategies.
--Boosting trade and investment: A new agenda for regional and international engagement.

African Country Visa Policy for Other Africans

Each year the African Development Bank publishes the Visa Openness Index, which documents the visa policy of African countries when it comes to allowing visitors from another African country. The index demonstrates at a glance which countries are facilitating travel for citizens of other African countries and whether they allow people to travel to their country without a visa, if travelers can get a visa on arrival in the country or if visitors need to get a visa before travel. When the website opens, go to "Rankings."

In 2018, the most open countries were Seychelles and Benin, which allowed citizens from all other 53 African countries to enter without a visa. Rwanda, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Mauritania permitted nationals of some countries to enter without a visa and all others to obtain a visa on arrival. The Comoros, Djibouti, Madagascar, and Somalia allowed Africans from every country to obtain a visa on arrival. Uganda, Ghana, and Cape Verde allowed the nationals of all but one country to enter without a visa or to obtain one upon arrival. The most restrictive countries were Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Libya, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.