Four visits in five years – Chinese President Xi Jinping has made Africa a priority of his presidency.
This time, he’s visiting Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa before a stopover in Mauritius. He visited the United Arab Emirates on his way to the African continent.
African leaders are eager to greet the Chinese president as the promise of Chinese investment means access and opportunity for their people. While some critics warn that China’s involvement on the continent is a modern form of colonialism, many African leaders welcome the economic partnerships.
To discuss President Xi’s visit:
- Chen Chenchen is deputy director of the Macro Research Department in the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University.
- Abdullahi Boru Halakhe is a security and policy analyst focusing on Africa.
- Alexander Demissie is founding director of the China Africa Advisory.
- Edmund Ghareeb is a scholar specializing in Middle East affairs.
For more:
President #XiJinping hailed the great dynamism of #Africa when he arrived in Senegal on Saturday, the first stop on a four-country trip to Africa, that also takes him to Rwanda, South Africa and Mauritius.
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) July 22, 2018
#BREAKING: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here on Sunday for a state visit to Rwanda, the first by a Chinese head of state to the African country pic.twitter.com/PMGe6KD6Jz
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 22, 2018