ABSTRACT
This chapter examines China's engagement with Africa by looking at the sources of Chinese engagement with Africa; the proliferation of Chinese actors on the African continent; Forum on China-Africa Cooperation; and new trends in the relationship. Though resource security impulses are at the forefront of the contemporary push into Africa with China's energy state-owned enterprises taking the lead, there is also a desire to exploit commercial opportunities with increased trade. The over-supply of infrastructure firms and labour within China itself provides an additional rationale for this expansion into new markets. Ranging from global parastatals like the China National Offshore Oil Corporation to thousands of retail shops, the Chinese have made inroads in the economic life of ordinary Africans in an extraordinarily short period of time. Politically, there was a renewed push to counter Taiwan's so-called 'dollar diplomacy' on the continent, which had succeeded in winning back official recognition from a number of African states by the early 1990s.
