China Has Overtaken the U.S. in African Trade 🇨🇳🇺🇲

What We're Showing

This graphic visualizes whether each African country trades with the U.S. or China more in 2003 versus 2023.

Data comes from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, UN Comtrade via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 2023 or the latest data available was used.

African Countries Are Choosing China over the States

In 2003, China was the preferred trading partner over the U.S. for 18 countries or 35% of the continent.

Fast forward 20 years, 52 out of the 54 African countries (97%) trade more with China than with the U.S. as of 2023.

Initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) aim to boost China-Africa trade by improving infrastructure, streamlining trade, and strengthening African value chains to support more balanced economic ties.

China-Africa trade climbed to $295 billion in 2024, marking a 6% year-on-year increase.