Zhang Hongming: China’s Strategic Need for Africa in a Time of Great Change

The perception among many stakeholders in the West and across Africa is that China’s engagement in Africa is motivated by a need for natural resources and markets for its finished goods. While that may have been true during the early stages of China’s presence on the continent in the mid-2000, it isn’t the case today.

According to Zhang Hongming (张宏明), a researcher at The Institute Of West Asian and African Studies at the influential Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Africa now plays a pivotal role in China’s escalating stand-off with the United States and Beijing’s ambition to realign the existing international order more in its favor.

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by Eric Olander

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