China Expands Investments Across Africa

Posted: April 16th, 2017

By David Dollar

David Dollar is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. He is a leading expert on China's economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013 he was the U.S. Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China. Before his time at Treasury, Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009 was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank's research department. Prior to his World Bank career, Dollar was an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, spending a semester in Beijing teaching at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Decades ago, China saw economic partnerships with African nations as a means of securing political support. As China’s economy has evolved towards export manufacture, its interests shifted to gaining access to Africa’s bountiful natural resources. Today, in China’s diversifying economy, state-owned and private companies are seeking new opportunities across the African continent. The Cipher Brief asked David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute’s John L. Thornton China Center to bring us up to date on the Chinese surge into Africa.

The Cipher Brief: China has been investing heavily in Africa for quite some time. What are the most recent trends and where are they heading?

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