It’s a relatively recent phenomenon for China to frame its relations in Africa within the larger context of great power competition with the United States and the European Union. Prior to the Trump administration when the ties between the U.S. and China started deteriorating more rapidly, Africa was not a major focal point of Sino-U.S. competition.

That is definitely not the case today. One indication that Chinese stakeholders increasingly view Africa as a regional theater of competition with the U.S. and Europe is a noticeable increase in the quantity of academic writing on the subject at universities and think tanks across the country.