Podcast: Mandira Bagwandeen on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa

As China’s Belt and Road Initiative has grown and adapted over the past decade, it often has made Africa the biggest target of its infrastructure projects and other BRI activities. In the latest episode of our podcast series, Mandira Bagwandeen, a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town who focuses on China-Africa relations, discusses with Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at CFR, the effectiveness of BRI to date in Africa, the ways in which BRI and the new African free trade agreement could complement each other, the adaptability of BRI, and how China’s approach to the pandemic, and to vaccines, is affecting Beijing’s image and relations in sub-Saharan Africa, among other topics.

You can access the podcast here.