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China’s relations with the African continent: Three elephants in the room
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From the landmark $200m African Union secretariat building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is the meeting place of African leaders, which was a gift in 2012, to the roads, airports, railways, universities and libraries, China’s visibility in Africa’s infrastructural landscape is clear.

Africa-China trade galloped from around $10bn in early 2000 to $200bn in 2014, dropping slightly below $200bn in 2019. Chinese investment in Africa increased from around $75m in 2003 to $2.7bn in 2019. Africa has also served as a market for Chinese manufacturing and as a source of raw materials, as well as providing political support in the UN – namely over Taiwan.

In fact, Africa-China relations have evolved from fringe contacts preceding the 1950s into a series of complex interactions that continues to attract both optimistic and pessimistic visions about their present and future.

Their growing relations are also visible in migration. But with COVID-19 impeding international travel, what is the real impact of the pandemic on migration and future exchanges between the two?

When the pandemic first began in early 2020, xenophobia against Africans in Guangzhou, a city on China’s southern coast troubled China’s relations with the continent. Though tensions between the two nations were high, this was merely a temporary setback.

I argue that the long-term impact of the pandemic on migration will manifest in the interplay of the three elephants in the room: racism, the media and local realities – none of which are new in Africa-China relations. But before discussing these elephants, it is good to understand the nature of migration on both sides.

A sketch of migration

Migration between China and Africa predates the independence of many African states. Although there are no accurate figures, it is estimated that there are now around 500,000 Africans in China and between one and two million Chinese citizens on the African continent as a whole.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/pandemic-border/chinas-relations-with-the-african-continent-three-elephants-in-the-room/