BEIJING - African leaders will arrive in China’s capital this week for the China-Africa summit taking place from 4-6 September, seeking funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects as they face mounting great power competition over resources and influence on the continent.
China has expanded ties with African nations in the past decade, providing them with billions in loans that have helped build infrastructure. However, China has also sometimes stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.
China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects, tapping the continent’s vast natural resources, including copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth minerals.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner. According to Chinese state media, bilateral trade hit $167.8 billion in the first half of this year.
As we approach the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), anticipation is growing around the key themes and deals that will emerge from the meeting. While China and Africa are aligned on many critical issues, their interests heading into FOCAC 9 also diverge in important ways.
Since the first FOCAC gathering in 2000, the meeting has evolved to keep pace with the changing Africa-China relationship. What began as a platform primarily focused on economic ties has expanded to encompass a broader range of issues reflecting both Chinese and African priorities.
In these two companion reports, CGSP Managing Editor Cobus van Staden provides a thorough analysis of the China-Africa relationship as it enters FOCAC 9, detailing the challenges and priorities on both sides, exploring areas of convergence and divergence, and offering insights into what to expect from this upcoming meeting.
Africa’s Priorities and Challenges at FOCAC 2024
Key insights:
- China’s evolving partnership with Africa is reshaping the continent’s infrastructure, data, and energy landscape. This relationship, punctuated by the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), is not just about bilateral ties—it’s a strategic framework influencing Africa’s global engagements. As FOCAC 2024 approaches, this report provides an African perspective on the process and priorities that will likely shape the upcoming discussions.
- Strategic Importance: FOCAC has emerged as a pivotal platform in Africa-China relations, driving not just economic collaboration but also influencing Africa’s engagement with other global powers. The forum’s outcomes set precedents that Africa can leverage in its interactions with other international partners.
- Evolving Priorities: While FOCAC began with a narrow scope that mostly dealt with the economic facet of the relationship, successive waves of negotiations between African diplomats and their Chinese counterparts have resulted in a slow expansion of the platform’s purview to include more African priorities. Heading into FOCAC 2024, Africa is focused on collaborating with China on training and technology transfer, increasing Africa’s value share in production and supply chains, and developing a sustainable and robust agricultural industry.
- African Agency: The utility of FOCAC for Africa is increasingly tied to Africa’s ability to set the agenda. Africa’s green energy potential, youthful population, and mineral resources promise a bright future, but low electrification rates and an industrialization backlog present challenges. If Africa hopes to take full advantage of the FOCAC setting, negotiators must be proactive in bringing its priorities to the table.
FOCAC 2024 is positioned to be a critical juncture in the Africa-China relationship, with the potential to drive significant advancements in trade, industrial development, and sustainable cooperation. As Africa navigates this partnership, its ability to influence the agenda will be key to achieving long-term benefits.
China’s Agenda at FOCAC 2024: Climate, Connectivity and Coalitions
Key insights:
- While some might believe that China’s engagement with Africa is primarily driven by a desire for the continent’s natural resources, in reality, the relationship is multifaceted. Africa’s 54 votes at the UN, its substantial youth demographic, and the way that Africa-China cooperation enhances China’s narrative that it is building a global community of developing countries highlight why China remains committed to Africa.
- As China navigates increasing global pressure, particularly from the U.S. and its allies, this relationship has become even more critical. The upcoming 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing will be a defining moment for both sides, shaping the trajectory of this vital partnership. This report deals with the Chinese perspective of the China-Africa relationship ahead of FOCAC in September 2024: why Africa matters to China, where the relationship currently stands, and what China’s priorities are going into this meeting.
- Economic Development: While trade expansion remains a priority, the ambitious goal set in 2021 to increase African imports to China has seen modest progress. Still, China remains committed to developing and deepening its economic ties in Africa, and the 2024 FOCAC is expected to renew commitments, with a focus on agriculture and aiding African producers in accessing Chinese markets.
- Political Alliances: Beyond economic interests, China views Africa as a key partner in its efforts to establish alternative global governance structures more in line with its own priorities and less centered around Western power. Africa’s moral weight as the heart of the Global South, and its 54 votes at the UN, make it an important partner in this quest.
- Green Energy and Industrial Development: Reflecting China’s renewable energy investments under the Belt and Road Initiative, the upcoming FOCAC will likely emphasize green energy cooperation. Additionally, China’s expertise in renewable energy positions it as a crucial partner for Africa’s electrification, supporting the continent’s broader industrial development goals.
- Global Connectivity: While FOCAC predates the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it has emerged as a key platform for BRI engagement. The BRI has focused on boosting connectivity between China and the rest of the world. This has historically been centered on physical infrastructure but increasingly includes other forms of connectivity, like trade and regulatory integration, ICT, training, and people-to-people exchange. These themes will likely feature heavily at FOCAC 2024.
The 2024 FOCAC summit is poised to reinforce China’s role as a key partner in Africa’s development and a leader in the Global South. Amid ongoing anti-China rhetoric from the U.S., this meeting will be critical in solidifying the strategic, economic, and diplomatic ties that bind China and Africa.
China displaced the United States to become Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009, and Beijing has held tight on that position to date. Over 20 per cent of Africa’s exports now go to China while 16 per cent of the continent’s imports are sourced from the Chinese market.
