China Moves from Infrastructure to Legal Influence in Africa

Ying Yong, Chief Grand Prosecutor and Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China, delivers a speech at the 2025 China-Africa Prosecutorial Cooperation Forum. Photo via The Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China.

Prosecutors and representatives from twelve African countries — Ethiopia, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — gathered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, on October 29, 2025, for the second China-Africa Prosecutorial Cooperation Forum. The meeting’s theme, “The role of the public prosecution in the modernization of judicial systems in China and Africa,” reflects a growing effort to align legal and institutional practices across both sides.

Beyond the formalities, this forum was the latest example of the gradual implementation of policies set in motion at the 2024 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). It forms part of a series of initiatives aimed at building a legal foundation for the China–Africa partnership. Earlier in 2025, the first judicial cooperation forum was held in Changsha, followed by a seminar in Xiangtan on investment and commercial dispute settlement.

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by Christian Geraud Neema Byamungu

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