The Chinese government laid out an ambitious blueprint for its ties with Africa detailed in a 36-page white paper published by the State Council (China’s equivalent to the cabinet in the U.S.) on Friday, just two days before the opening of the eighth FOCAC ministerial conference in Dakar.
The first half of the document is thick with Chinese political discourse emphasizing China as a peer country among equals within the Global South. The authors allocated considerable space in the White Paper to detailing China’s contributions to African countries in the realms of COVID, debt relief, and Ebola among other things.