Mainland China-Angola Relations: Moving from Debacle to Détente

Abstract

Beijing’s involvement in Angola in the mid-1970s as a testing ground for the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) position toward the superpowers was a disaster for its foreign policy in southern Africa. As it ended up on the side of the United States and regional pariah South Africa, Chinese policy was commonly perceived as lacking an awareness of African intricacies and of being opportunistic. As a result, Beijing was excluded from Angola by a government bitter at the PRC’s support for the rivals in its civil war. Only after skillful diplomacy and a change in attitude by Angola toward its ties with Moscow, combined with China’s pragmatic foreign policy, was Beijing able to establish linkages with Luanda. Since then, Sino-Angolan relations have become comparatively strong and are likely to develop further as China views Angola as a potentially wealthy and strategic nation slowly emerging from a paralyzing civil war.