China’s relational power in Africa: Beijing’s ‘new type of party-to-party relations’

Abstract

Using a Chinese conceptualisation of social capital—Qin Yaqing’s ‘relational theory of world politics’ (i.e. ‘relationality’)—along with informal interviews and two decades of official data this study explains how and why the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (ID-CPC) is building relationships with African political elites. It shows how the department has become the institutional embodiment of relationality—the primary party organ tasked with enhancing what Qin calls China’s ‘relational power’ with like-minded political partners regardless of their ideology. The ID-CPC offers its African counterparts bilateral and multilateral ‘host diplomacy’ and ‘cadre training’ programs that share Chinese governance methods and rewards them for their praise and political support. Relationality helps explain why the ID-CPC continues to expand and deepen its relationships with African political elites, maintained them virtually during COVID-19, and quickly restarted in-person exchanges as soon as China’s pandemic travel restrictions were loosened in early 2023. The literature on social capital theory has long been based on Western experiences and notions of relationship building. Applying Qin’s distinctly Chinese conception of social capital to systematic empirical data reveal how traditional Confucian sociocultural practices continue to shape China’s contemporary international relations.

Keywords:

• China
• Africa
• social capital
• relationality
• political parties
• diplomacy

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Ilan Berman and Nigel Quinney for their detailed editing and suggestions. Dominque Reichenbach, Haley Grizzell, Thomas Falci, Nathan Depew, Alice He, Joshua Pine, Krystal Sun, and Mi Siyi provided essential research assistance and spent long hours updating the dataset. Catherine Bentley and Madeleine Hatfield deserve special thanks for their guidance and patience throughout the peer-review process, as do Andrea Ghiselli and Brantly Womack who offered their encouragement and helpful comments on early drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Texas at Austin, Fudan University, the Carnegie Council for International Affairs, and the American Foreign Policy Council.

Notes on contributors

Joshua Eisenman

Joshua Eisenman is Associate Professor of Politics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the political economy of China’s development and its foreign relations with the global south—particularly Africa. His forthcoming book, China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement (Columbia University Press, 2023) co-authored with David H. Shinn, examines contemporary China-Africa political and security relations. Their first book, China and Africa: A Century of Engagement (University of Pennsylvania Press), was named one of the ‘Best International Relations Books of 2012’ by Foreign Affairs.