The macroeconomic expansion of the People’s Republic of China onto the African continent

This thesis examines the macroeconomic expansion of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) onto the African continent, with a special focus on the potential political leverage the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can exert on its investment recipients. The research aims to evaluate whether the extensive Chinese investment and lending activity in Africa serves merely economic goals or if it also chases political objectives of expanding political influence, thereby challenging the standing global order. While the theoretical framework tries to explain potential Chinese motivations for this behavior and describe the execution of economic statecraft employed by the CCP, the quantitative analysis tests the real political alignment of the African continent with the PRC on the grounds of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), employing regression testing of loans and foreign direct investments (FDI) with the UNGA voting patterns.