China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement

Since Xi Jinping’s accession to power in 2012, nearly every aspect of China’s relations with Africa has grown dramatically. Beijing has increased the share of resources it devotes to African countries, expanding military cooperation, technological investment, and educational and cultural programs as well as extending its political influence. This book examines the full scope of contemporary political and security relations between China and Africa. David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman not only explain the specific tactics and methods that Beijing uses to build its strategic relations with African political and military elites but also contextualize and interpret them within China’s larger geostrategy. They argue that the priorities of Chinese leaders—including the conflation of threats to the Communist Party with threats to the country, a growing emphasis on relations in the Global South, and a focus on countering U.S. hegemony—have combined to elevate Africa’s importance among policy makers in Beijing. Ranging from diplomacy and propaganda to arms sales and space cooperation, from increasingly frequent People’s Liberation Army Navy port calls in Africa to the rising number of African students studying in China, this book marshals extensive and compelling qualitative and quantitative evidence of the deepening ties between China and Africa. Drawing on two decades of systematic data and hundreds of surveys and in-person interviews, Shinn and Eisenman shed new light on the state of China-Africa relations today and consider what the future may hold.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Map of Africa 1. Locating Africa in China’s Geostrategy 2. Bilateral and Global Relations 3. Regional and Subregional Relations 4. Party-to-Party Relations 5. Africa-Focused Propaganda 6. Security Strategy and Interests 7. Protecting Interests and Managing Conflict 8. Security Diplomacy 9. Maritime Security 10. Technology and Information Security 11. Projecting Trends in China-Africa Strategic Relations Appendix: China’s Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with African Countries Notes Index

About the Author :
David H. Shinn teaches African studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University and is a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service for thirty-seven years, including as ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. Joshua Eisenman is associate professor of politics at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and senior fellow in China studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. His books include Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune (Columbia, 2018). Shinn and Eisenman are also the authors of China and Africa: A Century of Engagement (2012).

Review :
Shinn and Eisenman have delivered a compelling study of China's growing ambition and evolving strategy toward Africa. In clear and concise prose, they lay out the importance of Africa in China's overall strategic vision and detail the full array of initiatives China is pursuing to enhance its influence on the continent. The book distinguishes itself from others in the field by both the quality of its research--its use of cutting-edge data, vivid on-the-ground reporting, and rigorous analysis--and its fresh and nuanced insights. Everyone should be educated on a relationship that engages almost one-third of the world's population, and Shinn and Eisenman have served up a master class. As the rivalry between China and the United States deepens, Africa is becoming an increasingly important arena for their diplomatic, economic, ideological, and security competition. Shinn and Eisenman provide a comprehensive and balanced overview of China’s strategies and objectives in a rising Africa. Shinn and Eisenman’s book presents the most updated and systematic examination of Africa’s ascendant position in China’s geostrategy and the defining features and emerging trends that have shaped Sino-African political and security relations. It is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand China’s global geostrategy in general and its security engagement in Africa and the Global South in particular. This is one of the most comprehensive books I’ve read on China-Africa political and security relations. Thoroughly researched, engaging, enlightening, and provocative, it is a must read for people who want to be fully informed about the dynamic and intricate relations between China and Africa—the variety of forms they take, how they evolve, and why they thrive in the vastly different contexts on the continent. The storytelling is brilliant, and readers are certain to learn something new. China’s Relations with Africa picks up where Shinn and Eisenman's previous collaboration left off, digging deeper into the complexity of ties that have defied expectations time and again. They move beyond the ‘first generation scholarship’ of narratives of bilateral relations, simple trajectories of expanding trade data and eye-catching media stories to unpack a wide range of themes such as party to party ties, maritime security, and technology and information security. Moreover, Shinn and Eisenman situate contemporary issues in the wider historical context and provide detailed elaboration of the content of bilateral, regional, and subregional relations that will prove useful for researchers and students alike. Outstanding and urgent...will be invaluable to a variety of readers including scholars of development studies, political science international relations, policy makers and general readers. An extremely timely and important addition to the literature on China–Africa relations....has potential wide appeal not only to audiences in the Chinese studies and international relations scholarly communities, but also to policymakers, think-tank analysts, journalists and other observers of China’s international relations.