Sino-Africa economic relations will be shaped by China’s slowdown, Western policies — experts

While many in China and Africa hope that economic cooperation between both sides will continue to expand under a series of initiatives, including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a new report by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warns that Sino-Africa economic relations will be increasingly impacted by China’s slowing economy.

At a recent Africa Day Gala Night venue in Beijing held by China’s Foreign Ministry and the African diplomatic corps, some African envoys rejected accusations such as the “debt trap” as mere attempts to undermine Sino-Africa ties, expressing hope that economic cooperation between both sides will continue to expand. “Since 2000, trade between China and Africa has grown from $10 billion to over $282 billion, which is quite remarkable, and it can be more,” Ibrahima Sory Sylla, Senegalese Ambassador to China, told the Global Times at the event.

Meanwhile, the recent three-day China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo held in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, ended with the participants renewing a call for increased Sino-Africa business relationship.

But as a new Carnegie report entitled ‘How Is China’s Economic Transition Affecting its Relations With Africa?’ argues, China’s slowing economic growth and its economic transition toward a more high-tech, consumption-oriented, and environmentally sustainable growth model with reduced exposure to geopolitical shocks will increasingly impact its economic relations with Africa. The authors highlight five domains of China’s economic engagement with Africa — trade, investment, fiscal stabilization, RMB internationalization, and people-to-people ties — across which both strong continuities and changes are evident. Moreover, policy directions within African countries and third parties, most notably the United States and the European Union, will greatly shape how these changes in the Sino-Africa relationship continue to unfold.