A new episode of the Nordic Africa Podcast on Chinas interests in Africa “Everything is weaponized”.

Recently, China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang finished his first official visit overseas in Africa, where he visited five countries — Ethiopia, Gabon, Benin, Angola and Egypt. His visit is in keeping with a long tradition. For 33 years now, the first official overseas-visit every year for all Chinese foreign ministers has been to Africa. In this episode of the Nordic Africa podcast, we try to map China’s interests in Africa and how these are met by the African Union and by individual African countries. And we turn the perspectives on China’s massive investments in Africa upside down; if everything is Belt and Road Initiative doesn’t that really mean that nothing is Belt and Road Inititiative? We explore these questions together with:

• Fantu Cheru, senior researcher at the African Studies Centre at Leiden University in the Netherlands and former research director at the Nordic Africa Institute.
• Liisa Laakso, senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute.
• John Åberg, senior lecturer in global politics and international relations at Malmö University in Sweden.