U.S. and Chinese Engagement in Africa

The CSIS Africa Program, in collaboration with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Chinese Institute for International Studies (CIIS), hosted a conference in Washington, D.C., in December 2007, on U.S. and Chinese engagement in Africa. The conference included senior leaders and expert analysts from China, the United States, and African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Swaziland, and Uganda. The event followed on from a 2006 conference in Beijing that examined the scope, characteristics, and drivers of China’s engagement in Africa. The recent meeting was intended as a complement to the 2006 initiative, seeking to solicit a range of African views on the impacts of Chinese engagement in Africa and to identify areas for possible U.S.-China-Africa collaboration.

At the December 2007 conference, commissioned papers were tabled—and are published here, along with a substantive introduction—that examined China’s engagement in Kenya, Angola, and Nigeria. The authors, experts from the three focal countries, each drew on extensive in-country interviews. Their contributions examine the history of and future opportunities for U.S., Chinese, and African cooperation in energy security, public health, corporate social responsibility, and building African security capacity. With U.S., Chinese, and international interest in Africa at a high point—for reasons both positive and negative—this report adds some welcome granularity to the literature on these multifaceted relationships.