Across economic, political, and security domains, the growth of China’s presence in Africa has been swift and staggering, which has fed both simplistic caricatures of China’s role on the continent and fears of renewed geopolitical competition. A closer look reveals a more balanced picture. This report examines how China’s growing engagement affects the United States’ role in Africa and offers policy recommendations for U.S. military leaders.

Focusing on economic, political, and security domains, this report examines China's rapidly growing engagement with African states, assesses the strategic ramifications for the United States, and offers policy recommendations for the U.S. Army.

Chinese-African relations became an issue of increasing importance leading up to the 2006 China-Africa Summit in Beijing. Nevertheless, academics and policymakers have largely neglected China's expanding relationship with Africa. Scholars have yet to explore the concrete ways in which Chinese actors operate in different parts of Africa, and developmental policy advisors have yet to take the political dynamics and implications of this involvement into consideration when forming policy. China Returns to Africa addresses key issues in contemporary Chinese-African relations, examining the impact of this relationship in issues of diplomacy, trade, and development. Beginning with the assertion that China is engaged in a scramble for Africa and that we are now on the brink of a new Chinese imperialism, the essays in this volume transcend narrow, media-driven concerns and offer one of the first far-ranging surveys of the consequences of China's investment in Africa.

The People's Republic of China once limited its involvement in African affairs to building an occasional railroad or port, supporting African liberation movements, and loudly proclaiming socialist solidarity with the downtrodden of the continent. Now Chinese diplomats and Chinese companies, both state-owned and private, along with an influx of Chinese workers, have spread throughout Africa. This shift is one of the most important geopolitical phenomena of our time. China and Africa: A Century of Engagement presents a comprehensive view of the relationship between this powerful Asian nation and the countries of Africa. This book, the first of its kind to be published since the 1970s, examines all facets of China's relationship with each of the fifty-four African nations. It reviews the history of China's relations with the continent, looking back past the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It looks at a broad range of areas that define this relationship—politics, trade, investment, foreign aid, military, security, and culture—providing a significant historical backdrop for each. David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman's study combines careful observation, meticulous data analysis, and detailed understanding gained through diplomatic experience and extensive travel in China and Africa. China and Africa demonstrates that while China's connection to Africa is different from that of Western nations, it is no less complex. Africans and Chinese are still developing their perceptions of each other, and these changing views have both positive and negative dimensions.

This book investigates the expanding involvement of China in security cooperation in Africa. Drawing on leading and emerging scholars in the field, the volume uses a combination of analytical insights and case studies to unpack the complexity of security challenges confronting China and the continent. It interrogates how security considerations impact upon the growing economic and social links China has developed with African states.

Examines Chinese engagement with African nations, focusing on (1) Chinese and African objectives in the political and economic spheres and how they work to achieve them, (2) African perceptions of Chinese engagement, (3) how China has adjusted its policies to accommodate African views, and (4) whether the United States and China are competing for influence, access, and resources in Africa and how they might cooperate in the region.

This collection juxtaposes a variety of approaches about China and Africa, and their interrelations seeking to go beyond early, simplistic formulations. Perspectives informed by Polanyi advance nuanced analysis of varieties of capitalisms and double-movements. It seeks to put contemporary China-Africa relations in critical, comparative context and in doing so, it will go beyond descriptions of inter-regional trade and investment, large- and small-scale sectors, to ask whether structural change is underway. Already it is apparent that the growing presence of China in Africa presents the latter with some novel options but whether these will generate a new embeddedness remains problematic. Highlighting the ’varieties of capitalisms’ in the new century, given the undeniable difficulties of extreme neo-liberalism in the US and UK by contrast, to the apparent ebullience of the emerging economies in the global South, this book examines such implications for international relations, international political economy, development studies and policies.