The African Union-China strategic partnership : prospects and challenges of aligning Africa's agenda 2063 and China's vision 2049

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and African countries have risen at unprecedented levels. China and African countries declared a new type of strategic partnership in 2006, which was upgraded to a new type of comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership in 2015. As a result, China-Africa relations have become a topic of great interest for analysts and researchers worldwide. However, a missing aspect in the literature is the alignment of China and Africa’s strategic development plans, namely, China's Vision 2049 and Africa's Agenda 2063. Since 2014, these strategic visions have been aligned because they supposedly share compatible strategies. Furthermore, the term strategic partnership has become widespread in policy and scholarly discussions on China and Africa. However, its meaning and applicability to Sino-Africa relations have not been adequately examined. Therefore, this study aims to fill these gaps by being the first to adopt the strategic partnership model (SPM) as an analytical tool to analyse AU/Africa and China's strategic partnership, focusing on the alignment of Africa's Agenda 2063 with China's Vision 2049. Adopting an exploratory/explanatory research design and qualitative approach, the methodology entailed the collection of data through interviews, indirect observation and systematic analysis of academic literature and other documents. The findings of the study show that the AU and China succeeded in using their partnership to pursue their respective development, security and geopolitical goals. However, the study also found that the partnership perpetuates Africa's dependency on external actors, encourages divisions among AU Member States and compounds the challenge of addressing the governance, and peace and security issues in Africa. Therefore, the study recommends a clear alignment of the national interests of China and African countries with the AU's collective goals, and creation of an effective institutional framework for the AU and its Member States to follow-up on FOCAC agreements.