At a ceremony to mark the beginning of its construction in 2016, the former prime minister of Ivory Coast, Daniel Kablan Duncan, was accompanied by several Chinese embassy officials based in the country.
Their presence was no surprise. After all, the stadium was the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and the Beijing Construction Engineering Group. Both of these are Chinese .
China was in building other tournament venues too. In San Pedro, the Laurent Pokou Stadium was the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (again, state owned). And the China National Building Material group served as on the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo.
All of this is part of a long-term policy of “” which China has been deploying across the continent. Linked to the , which is intended to promote trade and foster interdependence between China and other nations, stadiums have frequently been gifted to African nations (or else paid for using relatively ).
For instance, when Gabon co-hosted (with Equatorial Guinea) the Cup of Nations in 2012, in building both of its stadiums. Five years later, when Gabon hosted the tournament again, China .
Gabon now sends around – mostly crude petroleum and manganese – to China.
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Read the full article by PhD Candidate and Lecturer, 91²Ö¿â London (Institute of Sport Business):