Africa-China Initiative 2026 Spring Symposium

Join the ACI, our partners, and guest experts for the fourth annual ACI Spring Symposium centering on Chinese infrastructure and development policy in the Global South. Refreshments and lunch provided.

This event is sponsored by Georgetown University’s Africa-China Initiative, Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, and Center for Latin American Studies with Howard University’s Center for African Studies.

Schedule

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.

Morning Refreshments and Registration

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Welcome - Lahra Smith, Director, African Studies Program, Georgetown University, and Krista Johnson, Director, Center for African Studies, Howard University

Opening Remarks - Yoon Jung Park, Program Director, Africa-China Initiative

10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Roundtable – Shifting Chinese Infrastructure and Development Policies in the Global South

Moderator: Yoon Jung Park

Margaret Myers, Managing Director, SAIS Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs and Senior Advisor to the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue

Bulelani Jili, Assistant Professor in African Studies, Georgetown University

Jennifer Bouey, Tang Chair for China Policy Studies at the Rand School of Public Policy and Chair of Global Health at Georgetown University

Leland Lazarus, Founder and CEO of Lazarus Consulting and nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub

11:30 – 11:45 a.m.

Comfort break

11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Panel One: The Geopolitics of Chinese Infrastructure and Development in the Global South

Moderator: Henry Tugendhat

Keren Zhu, Davidson College, “Institutional Transformation through Megaprojects: The Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway and the Co-Evolution of China-Global South Relations”

Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow, South Asia Program, Henry L. Stimson Center, “The Political Economy and Geopolitics of China’s Infrastructure Building Efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan”

Victoria Chonn Ching, Non-Resident Fellow, The Atlantic Council, “Recentering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Countries amid U.S.-China Relations”

Bob Wekesa, University of the Witwatersrand, “A Decade of the Digital Silk Road and Geotech Competition in Africa”

1:15 – 2:00 p.m.

Lunch

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Panel Two: Chinese Investments, Financing, and Urban Development: Case Studies from Central Asia and Africa

Moderator: Bulelani Jili

Ding Fei, Cornell University, “Aesthetic Politics and Chinese-Backed Urban Development in Africa: Beautifying Sheger in Addis Ababa”

Edward Lemon, President, Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and Research, “From Extraction to Production: China’s Evolving Investments in Central Asia”

Henry Tugendhat, Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

3:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Closing