Author: Jonathan Holslag.

China’s policies towards Africa have transf ormed dramatically in the last decade and this evolution coincided with important shifts in the institutional set-up of decision-making on African affairs. There ha s been a proliferation of actors, resulting into a complex web of ministries, depart ments, commissions and companies that all try to defend their interests. Whereas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially has the responsibility of overseeing policies, it is the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) that gained most influence. It organizes economic cooperation, guides investment, manages foreign aid projects and since recent ly dispatches high-level delegations on a more frequent basis. MOFCOM screens Chinese companies that bid for large concessional loans to finance their projects in Africa. Often these are part of a closed circle of larger state-owned enterprises, wh ich maintain close relations with the State Council and the China Exim Bank. While companies certainly try to lobby the government, the large volume of state-backed loans is still an important instrument for the government to “steer” operations in Africa. But within the guidelines of the government, companies can be quite auto nomous in pursuing their own agenda. Wheedling African political elites, they manufacture demand for their services, produce in-house feasibility studies for a ssuring the foreign government of the company’s ability to undertake a project, and then persuade it to negotiate with the Chinese government to access project financing.