Assessing China’s Growing
Influence in Africa
Bates Gill, Chin-hao Huang
& J. Stephen Morrison
C
hina’s emergence as a rising global power garners increasing attention,
much in Asia, but increasingly also in Africa. China’s new strategic partnership
with Africa, unveiled at the November 2006 Beijing Summit of the Forum on Chi-
na and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), marks an historic moment in China-Africa
relations. China’s highest leadership actively espoused FOCAC’s ambitious vi-
sion, which was enthusiastically embraced by 43 heads of state and a total of 48
African delegations.
Following the summit, senior Chinese officials, including President Hu Jin-
tao and then-Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing visited 15 different African countries
within the first quarter of 2007. Assistant Minister Zhai Jun’s visit to Sudan,
and the subsequent appointment of Ambassador Liu Guijin as China’s special
China Security Vol. 3 No. 3 Summer 2007
China Security, Vol. 3 No. 3 Summer 2007, pp. 3 - 21
2007 World Security Institute
Bates Gill holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and Interna-
tional Studies (CSIS). Chin-Hao Huang is a research assistant with the Freeman Chair in
China Studies. J. Stephen Morrison is the director of the Africa Program at CSIS.
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