China is consolidating its image as an enduring partner in Africa by providing high-quality infrastructure such as presidential palaces and parliament buildings.
A key example is the new $32 million Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) headquarters in Abuja. Funded by China and scheduled for handover by the end of January, this centralized complex for the 15-member bloc aims to increase staff productivity and reduce operational costs.
On December 4, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, visited the site to review the progress and met with the Chairman of the Ecowas Commission, Dr. Omar Touray.
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Yu hailed the building as a “landmark project of bilateral cooperation” and a strong example of South-South cooperation. Touray, for his part, said the construction, which began in 2022, symbolizes Beijing’s “commitment” to regional integration.
The Chinese-built headquarters is being completed amid military takeovers in West Africa’s “coup hotbed”, including recently in Guinea-Bissau and an attempted coup in Benin.
Observers said the Ecowas headquarters was a striking example of Chinese “palace or building diplomacy”. Reports show that since 2000, Beijing has financed the construction or renovation of nearly 200 government complexes.
According to a 2020 study by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank, Chinese companies have built or renovated at least 186 government buildings, including palaces, parliaments, presidential offices, foreign ministries and military facilities.
This number has since grown with new projects such as the parliaments of Zimbabwe and the Republic of Congo, the foreign ministry annex in Ghana and the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) headquarters in Ethiopia.
The projects were funded through various streams, including winning commercial contracts, loans and donations.
The Heritage Foundation report claimed that Chinese-funded projects and gifts created “vectors of Chinese surveillance and influence”.
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the report as “full of falsehoods and ideological bias”.
“China has consistently engaged in practical and effective cooperation with African nations according to their needs. China has built numerous infrastructure projects for African countries, providing tangible benefits to the African people and creating favorable conditions for international partners to cooperate with Africa,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the time after the report was released.
China has built at least one out of three African national parliaments. Observers have suggested that through this strategy, Beijing has quietly secured its influence at the highest levels of government across the continent.
David Shinn, a China-Africa expert and professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said China’s granting of the Ecowas headquarters in Abuja or the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa is a clear case of “buying influence with African governments.”
He said the only difference between these gifts and giving away a football stadium or a parliament building is that China has built influence with many governments and not just one capital.
“While China is not the only country that engages in buying influence by offering highly visible projects, Beijing does more than any other donor government,” Shinn said.
He said these projects are also inherently different from those based on loans or even grants that have focused on building capacity in health and education or improving food security.
“Once the structures are operational, it is up to individual African governments to put their national interests first, which may be difficult to do if Beijing pressures them to follow a pro-China stance,” Shinn said.
But China’s diplomatic gifts extend to other major continental institutions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where it built and financed the African Union headquarters at a cost of $200 million, handing it over in 2012.
China’s funding and construction of the $80 million CDC Africa headquarters in the Ethiopian capital has been positioned as a gift to the African Union.
Innocent Batsani-Ncube, Associate Professor of African Politics at Queen Mary University of London and author of the book Parliaments in China and Africasaid that what China was doing as a major global power was not fundamentally different from other powers as all countries sought influence, but Beijing’s strategy was unique in its use of “concrete symbols” or gifted buildings to project short-term influence.
The long-term plan was “not just to talk to the people who are currently in charge of government power, but to place themselves in formal African public institutions so that they can secure long-term access,” Batsani-Ncube said of China’s gifts to regional blocs such as the African Union and Ecowas.
He said China presented those palaces or parliaments in a way that “paralyzes the bureaucracy,” severely limiting the recipient’s negotiating space.
Zimbabwe’s new parliament in Mount Hampden, 18 km (11 miles) northwest of Harare, was funded by a $140 million grant from China and built by Shanghai Construction Group. It was handed over in 2022.
“At the top, when the gift is made, there is very limited room for negotiation,” Batsani-Ncube added.
He said in many cases, China continued to maintain buildings long after construction, ensuring sustained leverage.
These gifts were not without controversy. In 2018, Beijing was accused of disturbing the headquarters of the African Union.
However, Batsani-Ncube dismissed the spying claims as he saw “no conclusive evidence” and no realistic basis to believe that China would install listening devices in African parliaments, as their proceedings were usually public.
He said the strategic value lies elsewhere. China’s main purpose in providing infrastructure was the overt “symbolism” of its physical presence and the control it granted, which was a stronger form of influence, Batsani-Ncube added.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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