By Adebowale Johnson
In October, the Forum of China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be 25 years. Over these years, the relationship between China and Africa has gained so much diplomatic traction, the world hasn’t stopped noticing and discussing the importance.
The two actors – China and Africa have become the cynosure, and in many ways demonstrated that what hitherto looked impossible in diplomatic relations is doable.
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Even though Africa had been a part and parcel of the global system over the years, China introduced a different mode and approach to relating with the continent.
According to an international business man, Mr Banjo Johnson, “rationality is against undoing what is right. Rather, what goes right is preserved and improved upon. That is why the Africa-China relationship, even though going through some strains which are normal, must be strengthened and straightened up.”
With two months away from the 25th anniversary of the Forum of China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that has been the major driver of the fruitful relationships of the two worlds, this working partnership needs to be looked at for assessment.
From various experts in China Africa relations, this quarter of a Century deserves both celebration and evaluation
“These years have been definitive and beneficial in so many ways for the two sides and have consolidated on the frankness of President Xi Jinping’s mantra of a win-win relationship with shared benefits for all humanity,” according Ikenna Emewu, journalist and Director of Research of Zhejiang Normal University Institute of African Studies.
He also said that “In the history of Africa’s relationship as a continent, it never had it so good in a friendship that is valued, cherished rather than exploited, as has been the tradition with other parts of the world that came to Africa to plunder.
“With the antecedents of diplomatic frameworks targeted at Africa, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the USA since May 2000, just as FOCAC, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) since 1993, the friendship with China operates at a different realistic pedestal.
“TICAD, for instance, exists merely in name and has had not much meaningful impact on African countries or Japan, which championed it in the past 32 years.
AGOA is also a framework with all manner of strings attached and whose condition definitions are clandestinely determined by the White House. On TICAD, a Japanese website on the 30th anniversary of TICAD in 2023 listed that it has fostered free trade and an open international economic system between the country and Africa. However, to Africans who live in Africa, such impacts are hard to find, and Japanese citizens not seen operating businesses in Africa, unlike the Chinese.”
Drawing facts also from the African Business Magazine of June 2025, its experts opinion captured the facts of the hollow ritual of TICAD that “at the previous TICAD in 2022, Japan announced a target to invest $30bn from the public and private sectors in Africa, with much of this sum destined for infrastructure projects. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed in a report last year that it “remains on track” to achieve this goal. Yet the reality is that Japan’s role in African infrastructure development has been overshadowed by some of its geopolitical competitors. Whereas Chinese construction teams have long been a common sight across Africa, with many high-profile projects funded and developed by Chinese state-backed companies, Japan has taken on a far less conspicuous role.”
Even though the focus of this discourse is not to compare, it is important to draw such parallels and open the eyes of Africa to understand who its actual friends are that need to be cherished and the relationship preserved.
In contrast, the facts and details abound on how China’s relationship with Africa has spawned development in various areas, cultivated infrastructure, deepened the economy, elevated human capital development, upped the game in the healthcare sector, and activated a virile people-to-people interaction over the years.
Lagos Forum highlights gains
At the 2nd Lagos Forum event in April hosted by the Chinese Consulate, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Africa China Economy Magazine and the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University, China, Chinese Consul General, Ms. Yan Yuqing said that ”Chinese companies have been key players and influences in the development of Africa in various sectors such as energy, education, industrialisation, digital economy deepening, infrastructure, and much more.
In these different areas, many countries in Africa have been beneficiaries, especially after President Xi at the 2018 FOCAC Summit in Beijing tasked Chinese investors in Africa to show more interest in the provision of such basics in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) concerns.
In infrastructure alone, Nigeria, for instance, has been a major beneficiary in the past eight years, with major projects built by Chinese companies and put into use.
The list includes about 772km of railway in six projects, including the Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja Metro railway, Warri-Itakpe-Ajaokuta railway, Lagos-Ibadan railway, two Lagos metro railway lines – all built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC)
China Harbour Engineering company completed the Lekki Deep Seaport, and building another one in Akwa Ibom State. There have been hundreds of kilometers of highway built by CCECC and the CGCOC. In February, the same company completed and handed over the Kribi Seaport to the government of Cameroon.”
Continent-wide infrastructure
Kenya has the Nairobi Expressway, Phase 2, built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC)
In Senegal, there is the Dakar-Touba Highway a major project of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC)
For Egypt, it is the 10th of Ramadan Light Rail Transit that aids and facilitates city transportation in Cairo
The energy and power sector is impacted with the Mambilla hydropower plant under construction.
South Africa got De Aar Wind Farm Expansion by Longyuan Power. It is one of Africa’s largest wind farms, boosting renewable energy capacity.
Zimbabwe has Hwange Thermal Power Station (Units 7 & 8) ready and running, and completed by Sinohydro. The coal-based power station has tremendously improved the country’s energy generation.
In Uganda, the Karuma Hydropower Plant, by the same company that lifted Zimbabwe, the 600MW plant is fully operational to bridge the energy deficit.
Mozambique is not left out with its Temane Gas Power Plant handled by PowerChina, a plant of 450MW that relies on the country’s gas reserve.
This list is merely a tip of the long note of investments in several areas by Chinese companies both private and public that are actually have been driving the economy of the African countries.
To the contrary, even though nobody expects a perfect flow of the friendship, the African side, especially the governments, needs to play a better role in making sure the gains of these manifestations of the friendship are not lost.
We have interacted with Chinese companies, government officials and agencies who lament the problem of insecurity that threatens their companies, workers, and other citizens. Their safety in some places is not assured.
In Nigeria, for instance, there have been cases of the abduction of Chinese construction workers and other citizens in the past five years. Even though these crimes are not hate manifestations against the Chinese, as Nigerians are also worse victims of such crimes, government effort to make the country safer will benefit these investments.
“Of course, there are obstacles. The Chinese players also encounter challenges of government policy inconsistency that affect contractual agreements, currency weaknesses, and some hostility or cold shoulders from the governments of different countries.
Sometimes, the rules of the contract, especially with private investors, are changed so frequently that such players lose confidence in the system.”
A research platform website lamented in a 2023 publication that “China has pursued investments in some African countries that are facing political, security, or economic challenges in line with its broader investment strategy, which seeks to access new markets and resources and increase its global influence. In the cases of Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, China’s investments have been criticized for being insensitive to the local political and social situation and for exacerbating the existing conflicts or tensions.” this also challenges the Chinese private sector investors to show more responsibility in their business dealings, especially as complaints of the respect for workers’ rights by them roil the friendship of the two worlds.
“In some countries, such as Nigeria, both the citizens and the governments are welcoming of Chinese investors and contributions. My research over time has proven this conclusion accurate,” the director of research added.
Prof. Liu Hongwu, Dean and Director General of IASZNU gave hope that even though there are challenges, but that does not cut across, as there are variations in some countries and among people. He said there is hope for better relationship because even though some countries may have presented challenges on the way of the economic cooperation, many others have been quite friendly and accommodating. He advocated better days and smoother relationship ahead.
Last year, a book, The Chinese in the Nigerian Economy discussed extensively the labour conflicts between Chinese employers and African employees. It explained that “most of the conflicts that arise between them are about cultural differences including communication barriers. Again, the Chinese business owner may bring experts of some scale from China and some countries mistake that as bias against local the workforce. That is not true because some locals don’t have the required right skills, but will need to retool over time. To resolve this skills gap, the CCECC example of sending Nigerian young people to train in Chinese universities in language and skills need to be emulated.
Emewu’s presentation which was reported by The Sun dwelt on easing business relations between China and Nigeria in all aspects, including the digital economy.
He said “One of the areas that needs serious improvement is trade and the currency medium. As of 2018, six African countries had signed currency swap deals with China to enable them to trade directly and seamlessly in their two currencies. Most of these suffered complementation hiccups in the African countries and to the loss of the countries more than to China. This is where the two sides, mainly African countries, need to handle better. Such agreements, well implemented, will seriously improve the economic relations of the two sides.”
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