"The Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging US‐China Rivalries in Africa: The Case of the Lobito Corridor" - by CWP alum Maria Adele Carrai

Within a geopolitical landscape often framed as a nascent cold war between the United States and China, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is increasingly pivoting towards the Global South, especially Africa and Latin America. This shift comes amid an increase in new competitive infrastructural initiatives, such as the US-led G7 coalition's Partnership for Global Investments and Infrastructures. This article explores the transformations of the BRI and what was its nascent rival under Biden administration, with a particular focus on the Lobito Corridor, which Trump seems to be supporting too for mineral access. It examines the motivations and strategies of the United States, China, and beneficiary nations, and how dynamics between them may unfold. The study finds that the Lobito Corridor exemplifies how the United States was re-entering African infrastructure markets, challenging China's dominance by targeting critical supply chains. The conclusion posits that this corridor signaled a strategic shift in global infrastructure competition, with the United States leveraging it to reassert influence in Africa, potentially recalibrating China's dominance in critical mineral supply chains.

First published: 10 July 2025 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.70055

Maria Adele Carrai is an Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai. Her research explores the history of international law in East Asia and investigates how China’s rise as a global power shapes norms and redefines the international distribution of power. She co-leads the Research Initiative 'Mapping Global China,' and is the author of Sovereignty in China. A Geneology of a Concept since 1840 (CUP 2019) and co-editor of The China Questions 2 - Critical Insights into US-China Relations (HUP 2022). Before joining NYU Shanghai, she was a recipient of a three-year Marie-Curie fellowship at KU Leuven. She was also a Fellow at the Italian Academy of Columbia University, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, Max Weber Program of the European University Institute of Florence, and New York University Law School.

Photo Credit: By Hallel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77945227