China, Africa and the 2021 Dakar Focac

THE EIGHTH FORUM ON CHINA-AFRICA COOPERATION (FOCAC) was held in Dakar on 29-30 November 2021. It saw the Chinese government, 53 African countries and the African Union (AU) Commission meet under the theme 'Deepen China-Africa Partnership and Promote Sustainable Development to Build a China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in the New Era'. Staged every 3 years, FOCAC is usually an important and high-profile event to take stock of developments in China-Africa relations, but interest in the 2021 Dakar FOCAC was more muted than previously. This reflected its ministerial--rather than heads of state summit--level and the challenges of convening such a meeting during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. It also reflected the comparatively less eye-catching nature of its results, with other media stories, such as the possible Chinese seizure of Entebbe Airport in Uganda, upstaging proceedings.1 Many external reactions to FOCAC's outcomes could be summarized as less money and more caution from Beijing.2