With COVID-19 disrupting travel, shutting borders, and redefining what is essential work, Pandemic Borders explores what international migration will look like after the pandemic, in this series titled #MigrantFutures
From the landmark $200m African Union secretariat building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is the meeting place of African leaders, which was a gift in 2012, to the roads, airports, railways, universities and libraries, China’s visibility in Africa’s infrastructural landscape is clear.
Africa-China trade galloped from around $10bn in early 2000 to $200bn in 2014, dropping slightly below $200bn in 2019. Chinese investment in Africa increased from around $75m in 2003 to $2.7bn in 2019. Africa has also served as a market for Chinese manufacturing and as a source of raw materials, as well as providing political support in the UN – namely over Taiwan.
