“China watches as Mali coup threatens stability in strategic investment region”, 23 August 2020

A worsening jihadist insurgency in Mali and neighbouring countries could put the brakes on China’s plans for a bigger presence in the Sahel region of West Africa, but it could also present infrastructure-building opportunities down the track, analysts say…

The Sahel region, extending from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast, is a strategic point for China’s trade ambitions in Africa. Its investments in the region are vast – in Senegal, Niger, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, and with recent advances in Burkina Faso…

China’s trade with Mali has been limited due to persistent instability in the country, but analysts say the Sahel region remains key to its trade and investment ambitions in Africa.

Lina Benabdallah, an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said Chinese investors would be closely watching the situation.

“Peace and stability in Mali are of utmost interest to Chinese companies whose infrastructure building work was interrupted by the conflict,” said Benabdallah…

“A return to normal would mean lots of infrastructure-building opportunities,” she added.

Chinese companies are building railway links to connect landlocked Mali to ports in Dakar, Senegal, and Conakry in Guinea, and Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding with Bamako last year to cooperate on the belt and road scheme…

“The Sahel region represents an increasingly challenging and strategic engagement for Beijing, including as it affects the geography of Belt and Road Initiative-related expansion,” said Benabdallah and Dan Large, an associate professor at the Central European University’s School of Public Policy in Budapest, in a study on China-Mali relations.

The study noted that “post-conflict reconstruction is very lucrative for Chinese state-owned enterprises that have been involved in infrastructure construction in Mali for decades”.

“[But] until the conflict is resolved, reconstruction aspirations can be costly for Chinese state-owned enterprises and their officials who are based in Mali,” they said…