• Research
  • Strategic Europe
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Europe logoCarnegie lettermark logo
EUNATO
  • Donate
{
  "authors": [
    "Matt Ferchen"
  ],
  "type": "legacyinthemedia",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
    "Carnegie China"
  ],
  "collections": [
    "China and the Developing World",
    "China’s Foreign Relations"
  ],
  "englishNewsletterAll": "",
  "nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie China",
  "programAffiliation": "",
  "programs": [],
  "projects": [],
  "regions": [
    "Southern, Eastern, and Western Africa",
    "East Asia",
    "China"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Economy"
  ]
}

Source: Getty

In The Media
Carnegie China

China’s Ambitious New Silk Road Trade Route Takes Shape in Africa

Understanding China’s investment in Africa through One Belt, One Road requires a familiarity with the country’s broader foreign policy and trade agendas.

Link Copied
By Matt Ferchen
Published on Jun 15, 2016

Source: China Africa Project

Four years after the establishment of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, investment in infrastructure projects on the African continent are beginning to gather steam. Countries in East Africa, including Kenya, Djibouti, and Tanzania, have played host to the first of China’s projects under the broader OBOR investment plan. While the initiative has been viewed by many as a demonstration of President Xi Jinping’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, it is in fact part of China’s “peaceful development” foreign policy agenda.

Carnegie–Tsingua’s Matt Ferchen joins Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden to discuss the strides  OBOR investment has made in Africa and the potential for projects on the horizon.

This podcast was originally broadcasted by the China-Africa Project.

About the Author

Matt Ferchen

Former Nonresident Scholar, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Ferchen specializes in China’s political-economic relations with emerging economies. At the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, he ran a program on China’s economic and political relations with the developing world, including Latin America.

    Recent Work

  • Q&A
    How China Is Reshaping International Development

      Matt Ferchen

  • Article
    Why Unsustainable Chinese Infrastructure Deals Are a Two-Way Street

      Matt Ferchen, Anarkalee Perera

Matt Ferchen
Former Nonresident Scholar, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy
Matt Ferchen
EconomySouthern, Eastern, and Western AfricaEast AsiaChina

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Carnegie Europe

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Europe Should Not Let Nuclear Nonproliferation Die

    Amid uncertainty caused by the Iran war, the global drive for nonproliferation has stalled. With Europe diplomatically marginalized and countries reassessing their nuclear options, efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons risk becoming irrelevant.

      • Jane Darby Menton

      Jane Darby Menton

  • Commentary
    Can Europe Compete with the United States and China?

    Between the United States’ market-driven approach and China's state-led industrial strategy, Europe is reckoning with how it can remain competitive in the global economy. But is Europe in danger of becoming a U.S. or China colony?

      Noah Barkin, Anu Bradford

  • Article
    Rewiring the South Caucasus: TRIPP and the New Geopolitics of Connectivity

    The U.S.-sponsored TRIPP deal is driving the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process forward. But foreign and domestic hurdles remain before connectivity and economic interdependence can open up the South Caucasus.

      • Areg Kochinyan

      Thomas de Waal, Areg Kochinyan, Zaur Shiriyev

  • Research
    Planetary vs International Security: Economic Growth at the Crossroads

    Economic growth is at the heart of a dilemma between planetary and international security.

      Olivia Lazard

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Europe and the Arab Gulf Must Come Together

    The war in Iran proves the United States is now a destabilizing actor for Europe and the Arab Gulf. From protect their economies and energy supplies to safeguarding their territorial integrity, both regions have much to gain from forming a new kind of partnership together.

      • Rym Momtaz

      Rym Momtaz

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Europe
Carnegie Europe logo, white
Rue du Congrès, 151000 Brussels, Belgium
  • Research
  • Strategic Europe
  • About
  • Experts
  • Projects
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Gender Equality Plan
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Europe
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.