Using a Chinese conceptualization of social capital, informal interviews and two decades of official data, professor Joshua Eisenman explains how and why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building relationships with African political elites. The International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (ID-CPC) has become the primary party organ tasked with enhancing China’s "relational power" with political partners, regardless of their ideology. The ID-CPC continues to expand and deepen its relationships with African political elites, maintaining them virtually during COVID-19 and quickly restarting in-person exchanges as soon as China’s pandemic travel restrictions were loosened early this year.

This public lecture series is organized by the 21st Century China Center at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. For more information on China activities, please visit china.ucsd.edu.