In keeping with a 35-year tradition, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, began his annual New Year tour of Africa on Sunday to quietly advance Beijing’s already sizeable influence across the resource-rich continent.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning, announced the visit at a news conference on Friday, saying it aimed to deepen practical cooperation across the board for sustained and substantive growth of China-Africa relations.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi being in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria highlights the consistency of China’s engagement with Africa, analysts say. This comes as Europe’s presence in the continent wanes, and America’s wavers.
Global capitals and investors are bracing for the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to the White House, while wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and domestic politics keep German and French ministers occupied.
Wang’s visit through to Saturday also comes as the world’s No.2 economy ramps up its financial support for the debt-laden continent and looks to strike more critical minerals deals and find markets to absorb its exports.
According to the co-founder of the China-Global South Project, Eric Orlander, the decision on which countries to go to each year rarely follows any external logic.
