China Courts Africa With $50 Billion Pledge, Military Support
President Xi Jinping vowed to provide Africa with $50 billion in financial support over the next three years and strengthen military cooperation in a sweeping effort to deepen China’s relations with a continent seen as key to his geopolitical ambitions.
The Chinese leader laid out his vision for closer ties in a speech to leaders from some 50 nations Thursday at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. That came after Xi hosted a gala dinner for the continent’s most powerful politicians, illustrating the red-carpet treatment lavished on African leaders in China.
Xi said China would unilaterally exempt import tariffs for products from 33 African countries deemed as least developed economies, as well as expand market access to the world’s second-largest economy. Separately, China said it would grant 1 billion yuan in military assistance to Africa that will help train 6,000 military personnel and another 1,000 police officers and law enforcement officers.
“This is a major success story of Xi’s grand strategy for the Global South,” Shirley Yu, director of the China-Africa Initiative at the London School of Economics, said before Xi’s speech. “China has every incentive to continue to deepen the relationship.”
The three-day conclave highlights Beijing’s ongoing strategy of positioning itself as the leader of the Global South, as Xi tries to challenge the US-led world order. The Chinese president has traveled to the African continent five times since taking power. Neither Joe Biden nor his predecessor Donald Trump — who disparaged African nations while in office — visited during their terms.
While no official attendance list has been published, prominent guests include Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Zambian leader Hakainde Hichilema, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Felix Tshisekedi. Xi met with at least 26 African leaders in the days before the event, pledging deeper ties in trade, politics and security.
Over the past decade, China’s lending fueled an infrastructure boom across Africa as part of Xi’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, but that slowed to a trickle during the pandemic before picking up again last year. While the forum provides a platform for African countries to push for debt forgiveness, Beijing has shown little willingness to cancel outstanding payments, preferring to offer refinancing options.
Nations such as Zambia, Ethiopia and Ghana all called on China for debt relief after the pandemic battered their economies. The Asian nation’s ongoing property crisis is likely to further constrain Beijing.
Rising trade barriers in Western countries over claims the world’s No. 2 economy is exporting its overcapacity has also pressed the need for China to find friendly partners to provide fresh markets for its shipments. But already some African leaders have sounded the alarm over imbalances.
“As South Africa, we would like to narrow the trade deficit and address the structure of our trade,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Xi on Monday. “We urge for more sustainable manufacturing and job-creating investments.”
China’s trade surplus with Africa rose to a record $64 billion last year, with exports surging to a new high of $173 billion, while imports moderated from 2022.
“If African countries are just exporting raw materials and importing more manufactured goods from China, the economic relationship remains no different from that with their former colonial powers,” said Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the US government-funded Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. “There needs to be a difference.”
China has also positioned itself as a partner in African countries’ transition to renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. The continent that struggles with reliable power was the fastest-growing region for Chinese exports of solar panels last year.
Beijing’s diplomatic engagement gives it an upper hand in growing influence on a continent forecast to make up more than a quarter of the global population by 2050. The Asian nation had 60 diplomatic posts in Africa last year, four more than the US, according to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s Global Diplomacy Index. China has upgraded bilateral ties with at least 19 African countries since 2023.
African nations have also been using their diplomatic muscle to vote in support of Beijing’s positions on issues like Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong in the UN.
“China is making a space for itself in the Global South and is positioning itself as a kind of a moral and political speaker for the Global South,” said Cobus van Staden, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. “And in this, Africa is key.”
