China in Africa & Latin America
How Chinese trade, investment, and lending are transforming economic relationships across the Global South.
China and Africa: A New Economic Order
China's engagement with Africa has transformed the continent's economic landscape. Trade between China and Africa grew from $10 billion in 2000 to over $280 billion by 2023, making China Africa's largest trading partner, surpassing the US and former colonial powers. Chinese companies have built railways (the Addis Ababa-Djibouti line, the Nairobi-Mombasa standard gauge railway), ports, power plants, and telecommunications networks across the continent.
The economic relationship is structured around resource extraction. Africa exports raw materials — oil from Angola and Nigeria, copper from Zambia and the DRC, timber from Mozambique and Gabon — and imports Chinese manufactured goods. Critics argue this replicates colonial-era trade patterns, with Africa providing resources and receiving finished goods without developing its own manufacturing. Defenders note that Chinese infrastructure investment fills gaps that Western donors neglected and that African governments are sovereign actors making deliberate choices.