• Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Global logoCarnegie lettermark logo
DemocracyIran
  • 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 Endowment for International Peace

  • Paper
    Egypt’s Military Landlord Economy and its Limitations

    The armed forces champion a form of capitalism that is generating revenue, but its reliance on rent faces diminishing returns, leaving the country with massive sunk costs and deferred returns, deepening dependency on external borrowing.

      Yezid Sayigh

  • Aerial view of Washington DC
    Paper
    Network and Structural Power: The Four Trend Lines Weakening U.S. Leverage

    Networks—from international payments platforms to key economic sectors—underlie many aspects of U.S. power. But they are suffering under an extractive approach to foreign policy.

      Daniel W. Drezner

  • Paper
    Threading the Needle: India’s Path Forward with China

    After the chill in ties between 2020 and 2024 that brought India–China relations to their lowest point in several decades, the two countries have engaged each other afresh. This paper argues that there are predominantly four imperatives guiding India’s approach to China, and they exist in an order of priority.

      Saheb Singh Chadha

  • Photo of commercial ship anchored near the Strait of Hormuz.
    Article
    In the Middle East and North Africa, America and China Converge More Than They Diverge

    Middle powers in the region will keep hedging between Washington and Beijing. It’s in the great powers’ interests to play along.

      • Photo of Kathryn Selfe.

      Amr Hamzawy, Kathryn Selfe

  • Container ship arriving in Savannah, Georgia
    Paper
    The Future of American Economic Power

    The future of American economic power will be determined by the interplay between Trump’s ambitions and the global backlash against them, as well as economic developments outside the direct control of the government, such as advances in AI.

      Peter Harrell

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie global logo, stacked
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington, DC, 20036-2103Phone: 202 483 7600
  • Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
  • Donate
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Contact
  • Annual Reports
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Government Resources
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.