An Analysis of China and Africa Relations with Special Focus on "One Belt And One Road"

China’s “One Belt One Road” Initiative has been billed as its most ambitious project ever in trying to shape and influence behavior in the international system in line with her growing stature. At the same time, growing Sino-Africa relations have been the subject of scholarly debate with supporters taking an optimistic view, also presented by China itself, of this relationship being a win-win partnership. Critics led by the US argue China is just using Africa to extract resources for its use, an allegation it refutes. The authors therefore sought to look at Sino-African relations but focusing on the implementation of “One Belt, One Road” in the African continent. Being the center piece of China’s foreign policy since 2013, a study on OBOR in Africa will give an understanding and hopefully answer some questions surrounding these relations. The lack of official bilateral agreements between China and some African countries has been examined, together with the possibility of expansion of the OBOR initiative to cover more African states.

Keywords: China-Africa, One Belt One Road, Soft Power, Expansion.