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Mapping the Emerging Africa-China Landscape

by Cobus van Staden
President of China Xi Jinping (R) and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L) attend the China-Africa Leaders' Roundtable Dialogue on the last day of the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg on August 24, 2023. ALET PRETORIUS / POOL / AFP

Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published a new policy brief tracking trends in Chinese financing to Africa. It notes the sharp decline in the size and number of loans compared to the 2010s.

This point has been made before and is usually framed as ‘the BRI is over.’ What the new research shows, however, is that lending is continuing, albeit at a smaller scale, along with new government guidelines for “Small and/or Beautiful” projects.

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