Africa-China Relations in the Context of Belt and Road Initiative: Realizing African-Chinese Dreams for Common Development?

Abstract

Since its launch in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become synonymous with Chinese foreign policy under Xi Jinping. While China has seen its relations with Africa institutionalized in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) since 2000, little attention, however, has been paid to exploring the role of African countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This chapter seeks to understand Africa-China relations in the context of Beijing’s new-found interest in inserting Africa into the Belt and Road route. Contrary to China’s official rhetoric on sharing the benefits of the country’s economic growth globally, it argues that Africa’s inclusion in the Belt and Road Initiative—President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy—is to demonstrate China’s system self-confidence and belief that it can offer a Chinese model of economic development—the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics as an alternative to Western model for developing countries in Africa to learn from.