Political Economy of China-Africa Engagement: From Tiananmen to Belt and Road Initiative

While the fact that China-Africa relations date back roughly to the Tang Dynasty of 7th-10th Centuries, is itself an important critique to the established view that China’s presence in Africa is a reaction to the claims of “America decline”, three key events are central in the political economy discussion of this subject; Tiananmen Square experience of 1989, the entry of China into the World Trade Organization in 2001 and the New Belt and Road Initiative. This paper critiques and contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on Sino-Africa engagement. It problematizes the scholarship in this area as adopting a reductionist conventional approach to studying Sino-African relations, namely, within Sino-American competition, and as though Sino-African relations are characteristically binary; China gains, Africa loses. Set against this critique, the study to critically examine the interplay of African agency and China’s evolving geopolitical strategy, particularly under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Employing a qualitative comparative case study methodology, the research explores the motivations influencing China’s deeper ties with African nations, while highlighting the significant constraints posed by asymmetrical economic relations. The analysis traces the leadership transitions from Jiang Zemin to Xi Jinping, revealing how each regime has articulated differing but continuingly interlinked narratives surrounding China’s global ambitions. It is established that since China’s accession to the WTO her relations with Africa have been reconfigured, from both sides, as strategic and mutual than ideological and asymmetrical. Notable in this reconceptualization is how Xi’s vision marks a departure toward a more assertive developmental agenda in Africa. By situating case studies from Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, South Sudan, and Kenya, the paper elucidates both the opportunities afforded by Chinese investments and the risks of entrenched dependency. The findings underscore the dual nature of this engagement and advocates for a rather nuanced understanding of entanglement where opportunities for development coexist with structural challenges, as opposed to reductionist analyses that sees China’s presence in Africa as a reaction to American “decline”. In conclusion, the study posits that the future trajectory of Africa’s development will hinge on leveraging these complex relationships for greater autonomy and diversification within the global economy.