It’s been a momentous past two weeks for Chinese foreign policy with major a breakthrough in the Sri Lanka debt impasse and the landmark announcement that Beijing helped to broker the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Meantime, China also reacted strongly to the announcement that Australia plans to purchase nearly $400 billion of nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. and the UK.
In this new, more contentious era of great power rivalries, the question of where Africa fits into China’s political priorities is now more relevant than ever.