Africa–China relations, also referred to as Sino-African relations, Afro–Chinese relations and China–Africa relations, are the historical, political, economic, military, social, and cultural connections between China and Africa.
Little is known about ancient relations between China and Africa, though there is some evidence of early trade connections. Highlights of medieval contacts include the 14th-century journey of Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta, the 14th-century visit of Somali scholar and explorer Sa'id of Mogadishu and the 15th-century Ming dynasty voyages of Chinese admiral Zheng He.
Modern political and economic relations between mainland China and the African continent commenced in the era of Mao Zedong, following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War. At the turn of the 21st century, the modern state of the People's Republic of China (PRC) built increasingly strong economic ties with Africa. In 2013, it was estimated that one million Chinese citizens were residing in Africa. Additionally, Howard French estimated that two million Africans were working in China in 2017.
In 1971, China received the support from 26 African nations in the UN to take over the seat from Taiwan. Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong was grateful for the support and said, "It is our African brothers who have carried us into the UN". Today almost all African nations officially recognise the economically larger China (People's Republic of China) over Taiwan in search of economic advantage (aid, trade and FDI). As of , Eswatini and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland are the only two African states to have official relations with Taiwan, although Eswatini is the only African UN member that officially recognizes the Republic of China rather than the People's Republic.
There have increasingly been closer political, security and economic ties between China and African nations. Trade between China and Africa increased by 700% during the 1990s, and China is currently Africa's largest trading partner. In 2000, the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was established as a forum between African countries and China.
The China Africa Research Initiative estimated that there were over 88,371 Chinese workers in Africa in 2022, down from a high of 263,696 in 2015.
Historical relations
China and Africa have a history of trade relations, sometimes through third parties, dating back as far as 202 BC and 220 AD.Snow 1988, p 2 Ptolemy, writing in Roman Egypt in the second century, knew of China by two separate routes: the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade. He identified two Chinese peoples: the Seres or silk people and the Sinai of the southern trade, whose name probably derives from the Qin dynasty.J. Lennart Berggren and Alexander Jones (eds.), Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters (Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 176.
The first mention of Africa in Chinese sources was in the Yu-yang-tsa-tsu by Tuan Ch'eng-shih (died 863), a compendium of general knowledge where he wrote about the land of Po-pa-li (Berbera).
In 1071, an embassy arrived in China from an unidentified East African kingdom. Since it was a formal tribute mission (in the eyes of the Chinese), it is described in the official History of the Song Dynasty. The name of the kingdom was Ts'eng t'an and it was said to lie inland and mint its coin. This name is probably derived from the Persian Zangistan, and the title of its ruler, a-mei-lo a-mei-lan is probably derived from the Persian amir-i-amiran (emir of emirs).Paul Wheatley (1964), "The Land of Zanj: Exegetical Notes on Chinese Knowledge of East Africa prior to AD 1500", in R. W. Steel and R. M. Prothero (eds.), Geographers and the Tropics: Liverpool Essays (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.), pp. 139–188, at 156–157.
Archaeological excavations at Mogadishu in the Ajuran Empire and Kilwa, Tanzania have recovered many coins from China. The majority of the Chinese coins date back to the Song dynasty, although the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty are also represented, according to Richard Pankhurst., p. 268 In 1226, Chao Jukua, the commissioner of foreign trade at Quanzhou in the Fujian province of China, completed his Chu-fan-chih (Description of Barbarous Peoples) which discusses Zanzibar (Ts'ong-pa) and Somalia (Pi-P'a-Lo).Freeman-Grenville 1975
Giraffes, zebras, and incense were exported to the Ming dynasty of China, making Somalis merchants leaders in the commerce between Asia and AfricaEast Africa and its Invaders pg.37 while influencing the Chinese language in Somalia in the process.
In the 14th century, Moroccan traveler and scholar, Ibn Battuta, made a long journey to Africa and Asia. He reached China in April 1345 after a stay in India before serving as an envoy of Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq of the Indian Tughlaq dynasty to China. He wrote:
China is the safest, best regulated of countries for a traveler. A man may go by himself on a nine-month journey, carrying with him a large sum of money, without any fear. Silk is used for clothing even by poor monks and beggars. Its porcelains are the finest of all makes of pottery and its hens are bigger than geese in our country.
The 14th-century visit of Sa'id of Mogadishu, the Somali scholar and explorer was another point of Medieval contact between Africa and China.Between the Middle Ages and modernity: individual and community in the early By Charles H. Parker, Jerry H. Bentley pg 160
The Ming dynasty admiral, Zheng He, and his fleet rounded the coast of Somalia and followed the coast down to the Mozambique Channel. The goal of those expeditions was to spread Chinese culture and display Chinese strength. Zheng brought gifts and granted titles from the Ming emperor to local rulers. In October 1415, Zheng He reached the eastern coast of Africa and sent the first of two giraffes as gifts to the Chinese Yongle Emperor.Snow 1998, p. 23
Other accounts mention Chinese ships sinking near Lamu Island in Kenya in 1415. Survivors are said to have settled on the island and married local women.
Archaeologists have found Chinese porcelains made during the Tang dynasty (618–907) in Kenyan villages; however, these were believed to have been brought over by Zheng He during his fifteenth-century ocean voyages. On Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast, local oral tradition maintains that twenty shipwrecked Chinese sailors, possibly part of Zheng's fleet, washed up on shore there hundreds of years ago. Given permission to settle by local tribes after having killed a dangerous python, they converted to Islam and married local women. Now, they are believed to have just six descendants remaining there. In 2002, DNA tests conducted on one of the women confirmed that she was of Chinese descent. Her daughter, Mwamaka Sharifu, later received a PRC government scholarship to study traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China.
National Geographic published an article by Frank Viviano in July 2005 about his visit to Pate Island. During his time on Lamu, ceramic fragments had been found which the administrative officer of the local Swahili history museum claimed were of Chinese origin, specifically from Zheng He's voyage to East Africa. The eyes of the Pate people resembled Chinese, and Famao and Wei were among the names, which were speculated to be of Chinese origin. Their ancestors were said to have been indigenous women who intermarried with Chinese Ming sailors when they were shipwrecked. Two places on Pate were called "Old Shanga", and "New Shanga", which the Chinese sailors had named. A local guide, who claimed to be of Chinese descent, showed Viviano a graveyard made out of coral on the island, indicating that they were graves of Chinese sailors, which the author described as "virtually identical", to Chinese Ming dynasty tombs, complete with "half-moon domes" and "terraced entries".
Archaeologists have discovered glass beads and porcelain from China inside Great Zimbabwe, a medieval stone city located in present-day Zimbabwe.
According to Melanie Yap and Daniel Leong Man in their book "Colour, Confusions, and Concessions: the History of Chinese in South Africa", Chu Ssu-pen, a Chinese mapmaker in 1320, had southern Africa drawn on one of his maps. Ceramics found in Zimbabwe and South Africa dated back to the Song dynasty. Some tribes to Cape Town's north claimed descent from Chinese sailors during the thirteenth century. Their physical appearance is similar to Chinese with paler skin and a Mandarin-sounding tonal language. Their name for themselves is "abandoned people", Awatwa in their language.
Contemporary relations
The establishment of modern China-African relations began in the late 1950s, when China signed bilateral trade agreements with Algeria, Egypt, Guinea, South Africa, and Sudan. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai made a ten-country tour of Africa between December 1963 and January 1964. Zhou Enlai visited Ghana and established close relations with Kwame Nkrumah, who desired a united Africa. Relations at that time often reflected China's foreign policy in general: China "began to cultivate ties and offer...economic, technical and military support to African countries and liberation movements in an effort to encourage wars of national liberation and revolution as part of an international united front against both superpowers".Muekalia 2004, p.6
Mao Zedong viewed Africa (along with Latin America) as the "First Intermediate Zone," in which China's status as a non-white power might enable it to compete with and supersede both United States and Soviet Union influence.
China works hard to cultivate favorable votes from African countries at the United Nations. It has often been successful, and the voting pattern of the Africa countries which rotate on the Security Council and African members of the Human Rights Council generally align more frequently with China than with the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. The General Assembly votes of African countries and China have also generally aligned.
From the Chinese perspective, collaboration with the African Union and African subregional bodies (such as ECOWAS, SADC, and COMESA) is attractive because these bodies function largely independent of Western influence. China and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have a long-standing relationship and China provides the SADC with an annual $100,000 grant to help fund its Secretariat.
Diplomacy
Early modern bilateral relations were mainly affected by the Cold War and communist ideology. Following the Mao era and continuing as of at least 2023, China seeks relationships with African governments and political parties on the basis of political and security reliability, rather than with regard to ideological ties.
China originally had close ties with the anti-apartheid and liberation movement, African National Congress (ANC), in South Africa, but as China's relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated and the ANC moved closer to the Soviet Union, China shifted away from the ANC towards the Pan-Africanist Congress.Taylor 2000, p.93 The Soviets supported Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union, and supplied them with arms; Robert Mugabe's attempts to gain Soviet support for his Zimbabwe African National Union were rebuffed, leading him to enter into relations with China. China adopted several principles, among them was the support of the independence of African countries while investing in infrastructure projects.