China in Africa: October 2024

Organizational expansion at the BRICS summit: The sixteenth annual BRICS summit in 2024 was hosted by Russia in the southwestern city of Kazan from October 22 to 24. Following last year's summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Expansion efforts led by China saw the addition of two African countries, Egypt and Ethiopiaas members of BRICS. According to Russian President Vladimir Putinmore than thirty candidates have expressed interest in joining the organization, with at least two dozen countries apparently having applied to become a member before this year's summit. Not all candidates were selected, the 2024 summit concluded with the addition of thirteen new partner countries (without full member status), comprising three African countries: Algeria, Nigeria and Uganda.

With the adoption of Kazan Declaration [PDF]BRICS have made the Global South their focal point. The organization expressed solidarity with conflict-affected regions of Africa, calling for the urgent implementation of international law, and reaffirmed its unwavering support for African solutions to African problems. Speaking at the topSouth African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke of BRICS' ability to change the trajectory of the Global South. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, on a grander note, envisioned the ability of BRICS to go beyond and transform the existing world order.

Before and after the summit, pro-BRICS content was omnipresent in the news cycle and on social media. In a move seen as appeasing its ally China, South Africa last week asked Taiwan move its liaison office from Pretoria to Johannesburg. With the conclusion of the summit, we are talking about a new world order has spread via dozens of Facebook pages from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, most of which spread pro-Russian and pro-Chinese rhetoric.

Multi-sector innovation and entrepreneurship: At the beginning of the month, Zambia signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Jijia International Medical Technology Corporation to build the country's first cholera vaccine manufacturing plant. The joint venture will produce three million doses per yearmaking Zambia the first African country to manufacture its own cholera vaccine. On October 9, the Chinese manufacturer of new energy vehicles BYD launched its first fully electric SUV model built for the global market, the Yuan Plus (Atto 3), in Antananarivo, Madagascar, marking BYD's continued expansion into the African market. A few days earlier, in Botswana, the country unveiled its first collection of locally assembled electric vehicles produced by the Botswana Institute for Technological Research and Innovation and Chinese manufacturing companies Skywell Vehicles and CHTC Kinwin Automobile Company. Other announced efforts include commercial trials for water-saving and drought-resistant rice by the Chinese company African Agriculture in Botswana; Chinese support for the establishment of a National Bamboo and Rattan Center in Ghana to advance the national bamboo industry as a replacement for plastic; And Sino-Zim University Research which will foster innovation, entrepreneurship and start-ups in Zimbabwe.

South-South cooperation: Under the framework of South-South and triangular cooperation, China has launched several initiatives aimed at expanding China-Africa relations through collaboration on common challenges such as food insecurity, energy and health. On October 18, The UN in China announced that with a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, she will work with governments and UN entities to organize a series of dialogues aimed at building climate capacity and increasing financing for climate change in Africa. Speaking on the Global Development Initiative (GDI) In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Mohamed Belhocine highlighted the importance of the GDI in strengthening China's focus -African on sustainable development. On the same day, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and China signed a $2 million project agreement to address the deteriorating food security and nutrition situation in Sudan over a period of eighteen months. In Uganda, FAO and China are in the third phase of a project that improve food production by directly exposing Ugandan farmers to the knowledge, skills and technology of Chinese agricultural experts.

Infrastructure investments: Chinese investment in infrastructure on the African continent has largely maintained its pace. On October 8, the Chinese group Zijin Mining announced its intention to purchase the Akyem gold mine project in Ghana from the American company Newmont Corporation for $1 billion. In Cameroon, China First Highway Engineering Corporation has started the second phase of build a two hundred kilometer highway which will connect the capital Yaoundé to the port city of Douala. China's state-owned subsidiary China Railway Construction Corporation, China Railway 20th Bureau Group, has started construction of a road in Nenoa remote border district with Mozambique in southern Malawi, while its 18th Bureau Group took over two new road construction contracts in Madagascar. Meanwhile, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation won a contract to modernize a train line connecting Kranzberg to Otjiwarongo in central Namibia.

Missing the target: However, some African countries are seeking to move away from Chinese industrial domination. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mines Minister Kizito Pakabomba said the country court new investors diversify ownership of its mining and minerals industry, including partnering with the United Arab Emirates and launching plans to renovate a railway that could more easily transport minerals to a port along the Atlantic Ocean, located closer to the American and European markets. Previously, the DRC opposed a proposal of Chemaf Resources to sell its copper and cobalt mines to the Chinese Norin Mining, a subsidiary of the Chinese state defense company China North Industries Corporation. On October 14, Uganda rewarded Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi Holding A.. a $3 billion contract to build a 272-kilometer section of the standard gauge railway known as the Malaba-Kampala (Eastern Route) Rail Project. This agreement follows the termination in 2023 of a 2015 contract between Uganda and China Harbor and Engineering Company resulting from financial support withdrawn.