[15] In 1226, Chao Jukua, the commissioner of foreign trade at Quanzhou in the Fujian province of China, completed his Chu-fan-chih (Description of Barbarous Peoples) which discusses Zanzibar (Ts'ong-pa) and Somalia (Pi-P'a-Lo).

[16] Giraffes, zebras, and incense were exported to the Ming dynasty of China, making Somalis merchants leaders in the commerce between Asia and Africa[17] while influencing the Chinese language in Somalia in the process.

Its porcelains are the finest of all makes of pottery and its hens are bigger than geese in our country.The 14th-century visit of Sa'id of Mogadishu, the Somali scholar and explorer was another point of Medieval contact between Africa and China.

[24] On Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast, local oral tradition maintains that twenty shipwrecked Chinese sailors, possibly part of Zheng's fleet, washed up on shore there hundreds of years ago.

During his time on Lamu, ceramic fragments had been found which the administrative officer of the local Swahili history museum claimed were of Chinese origin, specifically from Zheng He's voyage to East Africa.

[29] The establishment of modern Sino-African relations began in the late 1950s, when China signed bilateral trade agreements with Algeria, Egypt, Guinea, South Africa, and Sudan.

[32] Mao Zedong viewed Africa (along with Latin America) as the "First Intermediate Zone," in which China's status as a non-white power might enable it to compete with and supersede both United States and Soviet Union influence.

[49]: 108–109 In May 2016, ten African countries signed a declaration during a meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) which expressed appreciation for China's efforts to resolve its maritime and territorial disputes through dialogue and negotiation.

[30]: 39  African countries which are members of the UNHRC had a significant impact in narrowly defeating a proposal in October 2022 by that body to debate human rights in Xinjiang.

[82] During the December 2015 FOCAC meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, China's paramount leader Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion over three years in loans and assistance to the African continent.

[85] At the same time, criticism against China has been growing from labour unions and civil society groups about the "poor labor conditions, unsustainable environmental practices, and job displacement" caused by Chinese enterprises.

The Cable's route is around the Arabian Peninsula, first dividing north into the Red Sea, crossing land in Egypt and then proceeding through the Mediterranean to the Interxion MRS2 Data Center in Marseille, France.

Professor of International Securities Studies Dawn C. Murphy concludes that many African countries genuinely appreciate this moral stance by China against political conditions for foreign aid.

[101] Kenyan economist Anzetse Were has argued that some African nations' narratives of Chinese debt-trap diplomacy stem from a lack of fiscal transparency and a weaker bargaining position vis-à-vis China.

[102] Although several countries express concern that China has been engaging in debt-trap diplomacy to neo-colonise the continent; however, academics including Deborah Bräutigam have disputed those accusations.

[107]: 280  Jin observes that the majority of BRI countries' debt is owed to international organizations or private Western institutions like hedge funds, rather than to China.

[108][109] A 2007 report published by International Rivers said that several infrastructure projects funded by Chinese loans, such as the Merowe Dam, had a positive impact on the economies of African countries.

[115] In September of the same year, China promised the Democratic Republic of the Congo to build 31 hospital units and 145 smaller health care centres, a project due to be completed in March 2010.

[123] The Chinese government is motivated to establish these centers out of both an ideological commitment to fostering South-South cooperation with less developed countries and by a desire to increase food security.

[96] In July 2017, China set up its first overseas military base in Djibouti, which is a small town located in the Horn of Africa between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea,[125] as a logistics facility for peacekeeping missions on the continent.

[130] In July 2007, China supported the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 and contributed troops to African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).

[30]: 222–223 An increasing number of African countries have shifted their source of munitions from traditional providers such as Russia to China due to the competitive prices offered by Chinese suppliers.

[135] Chinese-made drones, especially those made by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, have been sold across Africa, and have been utilized in hundreds of attacks in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Nigeria.

[30]: 239  In conjunction with the Confucius Institutes in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, China has also developed Chinese language training programs for African military personnel.

[141] African Union Chairman Moussa Faki described the allegations as "all lies" and stated that "no maneuvers could distract and divert us from our mission" of strengthening ties between the AU and China.

[30]: 323  Wang stated that the agreement should end rumors of data leakage and that "AU has totally audited their IT system for the whole organization and nothing corroborates what was said in media reports one year ago.

[163] International observers have highlighted the generalised view in China of Africans as "backward or primitive and blackness as unattractive", with racist attitudes specifically on social media going untouched by censorship.

[165][166] Around April 2020, African nationals in Guangzhou were being evicted from their homes by local police and told to leave, with no place to sleep, amidst some recent Chinese news articles negatively reporting on Nigerians in the city.

[183][184] As a response to such criticism, China issued the Nine Principles to Encourage and Standardise Enterprises' Overseas Investment, a charter and conduct guide for Chinese companies operating abroad.

[210] A 2015 Pew Global Attitudes survey found majority positive views of China, ranging from 52% to 80% favorable, in Ghana, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa.