Forum on China-Africa Cooperation: Has Africa Achieved Its Goals?

Sudanhorizon – Othman Siddiq
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit has rapidly evolved to operate at a higher level than traditional aid, accompanied by successive financial commitments and an expanded scope to meet African demands. Alongside Chinese infrastructure projects and other deals that characterised the early 21st century, the FOCAC summit has become the most significant African summit.
However, FOCAC was not the first to establish what has come to be known as the “Africa Plus One” summit. France initially formulated the concept, and Japan’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), in many ways, set the template for FOCAC.
Several countries, including the United States, Russia, India, and Italy, have followed China’s lead in hosting large numbers of African leaders as part of their own Africa-focused summits.
The success of FOCAC has raised the stakes by attracting more attention from traditional partners like the G7 and emerging powers like the Gulf states. African leaders have started arriving in Beijing, accompanied by experts carrying projects for funding, as there are several meetings with entrepreneurs. There is also a meeting of first ladies on September 5 to discuss women’s education within the framework of FOCAC, aiming to showcase progress in this area.
FOCAC convenes every three years and will gather around 300 leaders this year under the theme: “Working Together to Promote Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future.” The discussions will primarily focus on state governance, industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, peace and security, and cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative framework.
This year’s forum takes place against the backdrop of two significant trends. First, the Global South’s role and whether China should be considered part of it have become more prominent amidst rising tensions between the United States and China and the increasingly divided North-South relations over issues like the conflict in Gaza. Second, the continent has grown more sceptical about the so-called “Africa Plus One” summits. The pressing question for Africa is: How successful have these summits been?
The lack of coordination among development partners hinders the success of projects. The broad announcements of “Ten Connectivity Assistance Projects” or “Ten Projects to Enhance Industrialization and Employment,” which have characterised previous FOCAC conferences, make tracking the details of commitments and projects difficult. Compounding this issue is that many of these announcements involve old funds disguised as new, retroactively combining existing projects with future commitments—some of which never materialise. This applies to FOCAC and most “Africa Plus One” summits. This is partly due to the immense complexity of these commitments, which involve numerous public and private sector actors managing multiple projects on widely varying timelines. These announcements rely on storytelling as much as on the actual details of deal-making.
Solidarity with the Global South
One of the reasons why the FOCAC has been so impactful is that it plays the visual game better than most other summits. While this repeats the inherent inequality in the structure of 54 countries versus one, it happens in the context of China’s relentless diplomacy with small countries. Unlike the United States and Italy, African leaders often receive complete red-carpet treatment, including meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping during bilateral visits to China. Additionally, China goes to great lengths to emphasise its status as a developing country, signalling solidarity with the broader Global South and aligning itself with Africa-led initiatives. Although China has begun incorporating more developmental goals into its engagement with the continent, it avoids the sombre focus on aid prevalent with the United States and the European Union, along with their accompanying conditions and moralising.
The critical test here is whether African countries, either collectively or individually, can overcome the complex side of these summits to strike their own deals, set their own terms, and hold their own celebrations. So far, they have not been able to do so, and the “Africa Plus One” summit remains a symbol of the structural exclusion that the continent suffers from under the current global system.
Cooperation in Loans
Since the establishment of FOCAC in 2000 and the China-Africa Development Fund in 2006, economic relations between China and Africa have deepened significantly. Over the past two decades, however, China’s deepening ties, particularly in foreign direct investment, in Africa have been a subject of debate regarding their composition, objectives, nature, and implications for the continent’s industrial and economic development. The Global Development Policy Centre at Boston University has produced a body of research examining the trends, outcomes, benefits, and risks of China’s economic engagement with Africa. The centre estimates that from 2000 to 2023, Chinese lenders provided 1,306 loans totalling $182.28 billion to 49 African governments and seven regional borrowers.
China’s commitment to Africa is reflected in its strong investment growth. According to Financial Afrik magazine, China achieved over $1.8 billion in direct investment in Africa in the first half of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. In 2023 alone, Chinese lenders issued 13 new commitments worth $4.61 billion to eight countries and two regional financial institutions. This is the first time the annual loan amount to Africa has risen since 2016. However, it is still far below the early years of the Belt and Road Initiative, where cumulative commitments exceeded $10 billion annually.
Cooperation in Renewable Energy
Chinese companies have installed more than 25 gigawatts of power generation capacity in Africa, accounting for more than 15% of sub-Saharan Africa’s installed power generation capacity. Despite their undeniable contribution to the energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa, the prices and outcomes of investment in these projects have been mixed. It has been observed that Chinese companies build both low and high-quality infrastructure projects in Africa, with some projects considered affordable and others more costly.
Observers believe that African leaders should put more effort into studying development and international cooperation projects, particularly in terms of unifying the national oversight and follow-up window to prevent the overlap of authorities and powers between the ministries and institutions involved or benefiting from these projects. It is clear to many that regional development and infrastructure investment are crucial for sustainable development. Providing infrastructure is an indispensable driver of growth and a critical element in facilitating market integration and liberating underdeveloped areas from the trap of poverty. Regional development goals are often linked to the provision of public infrastructure to ensure increased productivity and well-being.