This week Eric & Cobus sit down with Wu Peng, the director-general of the department of African affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his perspective on a wide range of issues that are impacting relations between the two regions.

The conversation also features questions from a trio of experts in China-Africa relations including:

• Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development (@gyude_moore)
• Zainab Usman, director of the Africa program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (@MissZeeUsman)
• Aggrey Mutambo, senior diplomatic affairs writer for the Daily Nation and The East African newspaper (@agmutambo)

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Since its inception in 2013, Chinese government officials have insisted that the Belt and Road is solely an economic initiative and does not have any military motivations. But the BRI's civil-military distinction is no longer as clear cut as it used to be. President Xi Jinping himself called for a strong BRI security system to protect China's overseas interests, people and property.

One little-known aspect of the BRI is that much of the overseas construction, particularly ports, must conform to standards that conform to the People's Liberation Army's requirements. So, while today there's little evidence that China is leveraging the BRI for security or military purposes, there are concerns that it is positioning to be able to do so in the future should the need arise.

Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute, examined the security dimensions of the BRI in a recent paper. Daniel joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what he calls the Belt and Road's "civil-military fusion" in maritime, terrestrial and space environments.

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Watch a discussion with the authors of ASPI's report Weaponizing the Belt and Road Initiative: https://youtu.be/PX5PnnnYrFw

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With the U.S., Europe, Japan, and China all moving quickly to secure new supplies of African critical minerals, more attention is now shifting to the strategic supply chains that will get those resources from mine to port to market.

The U.S. and Europe have invested billions to refurbish the Lobito Corridor that stretches from the DRC and Angola all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The Chinese have committed nearly two billion dollars to upgrade the aging TAZARA railway that links Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, joins Eric & Géraud to discuss how Japan is placing its bet on the Nacala Corridor — a much lower profile, yet potentially far more important route that links Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique.

Topics Covered in This Episode

• Major powers competing for Africa's trade corridors
• The strategic importance of the Nacala Corridor
• China's role in African infrastructure and logistics
• Japan's approach to supply chain diversification
• Critical minerals and the race up the value chain
• The Lobito and TAZARA corridors explained

Show Notes:

• The Africa Center for Strategic Studies: Reciprocal and Resilient Mineral Supply Chains: Lessons from the Nacala Corridor by Paul Nantulya

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