China Links Communist Party to China-Africa Cooperation

 Ethiopia's Capital published on 12 July 2026 an op-ed titled "A 105-year Journey of Struggle: The Code of China's Development and a New Chapter in China-Africa Cooperation" by Ambassador Jiang Feng, head of China's mission to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  

The op-ed begins: "On July 1st, the Communist Party of China (CPC) marked the 105th anniversary of its founding.  For the Chinese people, it is an important occasion to reflect on the nation's journey of struggle and achievement while looking ahead to the bright prospects.  For our African friends who are interested in China's development, it also offers an important opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the key to China's development."  

The op-ed continues to praise the progress made by the CPC and suggests that China's model of development offers lessons for African countries.

Comment:  The Mission of China to the African Union website posted the same op-ed on 7 July.  It is not clear if Capital published the op-ed because it considered the ambassador's remarks newsworthy or there was some other incentive.

China Courts African Media and Think Tanks at Forum in South Africa

 Kenya's The Star published on 17 November 2025 an article titled "China-Africa Partnership Conference Highlights Cooperation toward Shared Global Governance."

South Africa hosted on 13-14 November the Global South Media and Think Tank Forum China-Africa Partnership Conference.  China's Xinhua News Agency, the African Union, and South Africa's Independent Media organized the event attended by more than 200 representatives from 160 media outlets, think tanks, and government organizations.  The primary theme was shaping global governance.  

Comment:  The Forum is another example of China's focus on soft power in Africa and especially support for African media and think tanks.  The Forum provides China an opportunity to promote its governance model in Africa and build a "China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era."  

China also promoted its four global initiatives dealing with development, security, civilization, and governance.  China International Television Corporation and the state policy bank China Africa Development Fund have a 20 percent stake in South Africa's Independent Media, one of the sponsors of the Forum.  

Africa and China's Global Security Initiative

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 4 August 2025 a paper titled "Africa as a Testing Ground for China's Global Security Initiative" by Paul Nantulya. 

China's Global Security Initiative (GSI) is slowly taking on concrete structure.  GSI principles are designed to appeal to the Global South and are being integrated into the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.  African governments also see GSI as another source of security assistance.  

China's Think Tank Diplomacy in Africa

 India's Observer Research Foundation published on 9 July 2025 an analysis titled "China's Think Tank Diplomacy in Africa" by Samir Bhattacharya.

China launched the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum (CATTF) in 2011, convening delegates from 27 African countries.  CATTF serves as a permanent platform for dialogue and exchange between Chinese and African think tanks.  

Xi Jinping has significantly expanded this initiative.  Most of its activities are carefully orchestrated by China's state apparatus.  Beijing's goal is to project China's world view, governance model, and developmental practices.  

Africa-China Relations in 2025

 The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 7 January 2025 a commentary titled "What to Expect from Africa-China Relations in 2025" by Paul Nantulya.

China will continue to promote its governance model in Africa, enlist support to reshape global norms, secure the supply of critical minerals, strengthen party-to-party ties, and increase military outreach.  The major items on the agenda of African countries are market access, balanced trade with China, and adding value to exports.

The Future of China-Africa Relations

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published on 21 November 2024 an analysis titled "What FOCAC 2024 Reveals About the Future of China-Africa Relations" by Christian-Geraud Neema.

China called for modernization in Africa or the right to industrialize according to one's own background without being forced to follow Western norms.  China is promoting a variety of governance models and approaches to development and modernization that undercut the Western-led international order, norms, and values.  

China is positioning itself as Africa's development partner and international ally.  But there is no guarantee China's approach will be fairer or more advantageous for Africa.  So far, the United States has not responded with a clear counter strategy.

China Is Gaslighting the Global South

Foreign Policy posted on 5 April 2024 a commentary titled "China Is Gaslighting the Developing World" by Robert A. Manning, Stimson Center. 

The author argues that it is unclear if the Global South really wants "a post-American future--let alone a Beijing-dominated one."  China's vision of multilateralism and equality are camouflage for its own hegemonic ambitions.

Most of China's initiatives are aimed at delegitimizing and displacing U.S. power.  China envisions the BRICS, for example, as "a Sino-centric network," a competitor or eventually even replacement for the Bretton Woods institutions.

The author concludes: "China appears, at best, an immature great power, its aspirations far exceeding its grasp and appeal.  Beijing's wannabe post-U.S. order faces a legitimacy deficit." 

China-Africa Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence

 The Cyberspace Administration of China published on 3 April 2024 an announcement titled "2024 China-Africa Internet Development and Cooperation Forum: Chair's Statement on China-Africa Cooperation on AI."

The China-Africa Internet Development and Cooperation Forum was held online in Xiamen, China on 2-3 April 2024.  The participants held in depth exchanges on China-Africa cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI).  

In 2023, China launched the Global AI Governance Initiative, which is designed to implement its concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind and to realize the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.  

China's Three New Initiatives Will Shape Its Foreign Policy

 Time published on 1 October 2023 a commentary titled "Bye Bye BRI? Why 3 New Initiatives Will Shape the Next 10 Years of China's Global Outreach" by Ruby Osman, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has poured more than $1 trillion into global infrastructure faster and with less bureaucracy than Western programs, built invaluable overseas experience for Chinese firms and banks, and provided a wake-up call on the scale of Chinese ambitions.  And yet, 10 years on, it remains impossible to pin down what constitutes the BRI, which is more branding exercise than masterplan.

The advantage of being a brand is that there's an inherent flexibility to the BRI.  Xi Jinping has unveiled three new major initiatives: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.  They aim to share China's development, security, and cultural background with the world, and build consensus on China's preferred norms in the process. The political and institutional groundwork is being laid to ensure the three new initiatives will be a core part of China's foreign policy over the next decade.

China's Global Policy Papers: Ambiguity Is Not the Answer

 China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), a multinational consortium of experts, published on 28 September 2023 a commentary titled "Ambiguity: The Key Obstacle for China's Ambition to Reshape the Global Order" by Moritz Rudolf, Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. 

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a white paper titled "A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions" on 26 September 2023.  It comes after Xi Jinping's concept of a Community of Shared Future for Mankind (CSFM), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI).  The GDI, GSI, and GCI are efforts to provide meaning to the CSFM.  

The author points out that China's global initiatives emphasize general principles, which opens the door to ambiguity and appears to leave Beijing as their sole legitimate interpreter.  The documents suffer from insufficient translation, definition, and contextualization. China struggles to formalize and operationalize its global initiatives.  The author concludes that as long as Beijing remains incapable of clearly stating its global positions it will not be able to play a constructive role in reforming the global order but will disrupt it, regardless of its intentions.  

Recent Analysis of China-Africa Ties from Chinese Perspective

 West Africa and Asia published on 6 May 2023 an article in Chinese translated as "The New Journey and New Thinking of China-Africa Cooperation in the Era of Great Changes" by Zhou Yuyuan, deputy director of the Center for West Asian and African Studies, Shanghai Institutes of International Studies.  The Interpret: China project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) translated the article into English.  

This is an important, comprehensive, and current analysis of China's view of Africa today and its interaction with great powers on the continent.  Zhou Yuyuan was a fellow at CSIS in 2017.  Reflecting Xi Jinping's policies, the article underscores support for a UN-centered global governance system implicitly led by China.  It takes account of Xi Jinping's most recent policy statements aimed at the Global South: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.

Zhou notes the significance of Africa for China's supply chain security and global industrial competition.  He identifies the major problems in China-Africa cooperation and concludes that once again China-Africa relations are in a "critical period."  He highlights the need to develop relations with the African Union and African sub-regional organizations and to give greater attention to the African private sector and small and medium-sized enterprises.  

In view of all the current talk of great power competition in Africa, Zhou argues rather surprisingly that "We must promote dialogue, coordination, and cooperation between major power in Africa with African countries at the center."  He adds that Africa can "promote mutual understanding between major countries, make use of the comparative advantages of major countries, and promote the construction of benign major power relations."  

The Problem With China's Global Civilization Initiative

 President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) while delivering a keynote speech at the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting on 15 March.  According to a 17 April commentary in the CPC Global Times, the GCI is "another major public good provided to the world by China after the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, both put forward by President Xi, in 2021 and 2022, respectively."

The Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and GCI are effectively Beijing's alternative to the Western "rules-based international order," which China is working to replace.  

The Diplomat published on 1 June 2023 an analysis titled "The Trouble with China's Global Civilization Initiative" by R. Evan Ellis, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.  

The author argues that by promoting the relativism of values and arguing against it, the GCI concept appeals to regimes that desire to do what they wish, from criminality and repression at home to the ruthless invasion of their neighbors under the spurious mantle of legitimate security concerns.  The GCI is rooted in a convenient forgetting of the origins of international law and institutions of global governance, however imperfect they may be.