In 2026, the economic and trade relations between China and Africa will usher in new changes.
On May 1, China officially implemented a major economic and trade policy, implementing zero tariffs for all 53 African countries with diplomatic relations, becoming the first major economy in the world to unilaterally open its complete market to the entire African continent.
This move is full of sincerity. From agricultural products and fresh food to key minerals such as lithium and cobalt, and basic industrial finished products, all import tariffs are exempted, and there are no binding conditions. It actively opens up the domestic huge consumer market and helps Africa expand exports of various commodities to China.
However, just one month after the policy was implemented, the wind direction on the African continent has rapidly changed.
In the past two years, 12 resource-rich countries have intensively revised mining regulations and uniformly tightened mineral export rules.
Countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Guinea, and Mozambique have successively introduced new regulations to restrict or even prohibit the direct export of raw ore. Foreign-invested mineral mining must be equipped with local deep-processing production lines, and mineral projects require mandatory government shareholding.
Africa no longer wants to simply sell rough diamonds at low prices. It hopes to keep the profits from smelting and processing locally and raise the entry threshold for overseas companies from the source.
At a domestic enterprise exchange event on June 13, representatives of the African Union Pan-African Parliament made a public statement, without first thanking the zero-tariff dividend and directly issuing clear demands.
Africa has long been stuck at the bottom level of resource exports, with all high value-added links in the industrial chain flowing out. The region hopes that China will export complete manufacturing production lines, AI research and development, and a complete set of core technologies for mineral refining, and build a local deep-processing industrial system on the spot.
This situation has caused controversy among many netizens.
China has just offered substantial tariff concessions, and Africa has turned around to tighten mineral supply and directly demand scarce core technologies. It is inevitable that the perception will be imbalanced.
However, from an African perspective, long-term dependence on primary mineral exports and meager trade gains, industrial upgrading and getting rid of resource dependence are long-term development aspirations, and technology transfer is a key bargaining chip to achieve a win-win situation in their eyes.
However, AI and high-end mineral processing technology consume huge amounts of money and years of R&D accumulation. They belong to a country’s core industrial competitiveness and cannot be exported to the outside world for free.
China-Africa cooperation has always been about mutual benefit and reciprocity. Industrial technology transfer requires a complete cooperation framework, long-term investment planning, and supporting policy guarantees, and cannot unilaterally impose rigid requirements.
The model of “African mining, domestic processing” in the past few decades has been unsustainable. The simultaneous lock-in of mines by many African countries has forced overseas companies to adjust their layout.
In the future, China-Africa cooperation will no longer be limited to the simple purchase and sale of raw materials, but must move toward a deeply binding model that integrates local factory construction, technical cooperation, and talent training.
China’s opening up of its market is a good intention, and Africa’s pursuit of industrial upgrading is a development need. There is no conflict between the two.
Only by finding a balance point that takes into account the interests of both sides and reaching reciprocal cooperation in mineral trade, technology research and development, and local manufacturing can China-Africa economic and trade achieve long-term and stable two-way win-win results.
