ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) has been the leading development assistance provider to African states, with a long history and the largest amount, while China’s engagement as an emerging donor is burgeoning without aligning with the rules and norms established by traditional donors. Current research on the two donors’ development policies toward Africa overwhelmingly focuses on their differences and rivalries. However, various processes of convergence may also be traced in the evolution of the development policies of China and the EU toward Africa. This article investigates whether, and if so, in which aspects, Chinese and the EU’s development policies toward Africa are converging in the 21st century. It gauges the convergence or divergence in the two donors’ development policies in Africa from the perspectives of normative underpinnings and institutional set-ups, through a discourse analysis of their policy documents, the study of official cooperation frameworks and an analysis of institutional changes. The findings demonstrate that whereas China and the EU are converging to a significant extent with regard to their normative underpinnings, there are fewer similarities in institutional set-ups.