China's President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, hosted a lavish banquet Wednesday for more than two dozen African leaders, kicking off the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing.
At the forum, which lasts until Friday, African leaders will be looking for possible investments and loans as Beijing seeks markets for its goods - everything from household products to green technologies - and to deepen China's ties with Africa.
Earlier Wednesday, China, Tanzania and Zambia signed an initial agreement to reboot a decades old railway project that aims to boost trade between the two African countries. The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority project, or TAZARA, aims to connect landlocked Zambia with Tanzania's access to the sea by linking it up with the main port in Dar es Salaam.
Beijing helped launch the TAZARA railway project in the 1970s when Mao Zedong was China's leader.
"China is willing to take this summit as an opportunity to make new progress in the revitalization of the Tanzania-Zambia railway, cooperate to improve the rail-sea intermodal transport network in East Africa, and build Tanzania into a demonstration zone for deepening high-quality China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation," Xi said, according to state media.
China is Africa's largest trading partner and Beijing relies heavily on the continent for natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals. Zambia is Africa's second largest producer of copper.
In the run up to the forum, Chinese state media described Xi as "a true friend of Africa," saying China's relations with Africa have reached "new heights" under his leadership.
During the last FOCAC Summit in 2021, Beijing committed to buy more than $300 billion in imports from Africa. According to China's foreign ministry, China has already exceeded that goal, purchasing $305.9 billion worth of imports in roughly 2½ years.
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Beijing has provided billions of dollars to African nations for infrastructure projects and analysts expect that debt restructuring will be discussed during the meeting.
According to new research revealed by Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, Chinese lending to Africa rose for the first time in years in 2023 to $4.61 billion.
The research found China's increased investment was largely due to de-risking and China's increased commitment to energy lending. China invested in three renewable projects in Africa last year in solar and hydropower.
Analysts say Africa provides Beijing with access to many new markets that may help to make up for some of the pushback China is currently facing from the West and other countries over subsidies and cheaper products. The green energy transition is expected to be a large focus of the summit as well.
An additional factor at play has been the recent crackdown from the West on Chinese green technology imports with some Western countries implementing large tariffs. Last week, Canada implemented a 100% tariff on Chinese made electric vehicles and the United States is evaluating a similar tax on green tech from China.
