COVID-19 and Power Games in Africa: Can Sino-African Relations Withstand?

Since the colonial era until this beginning of the twenty-first century, the African continent continues to remain a power games ground. The era of "colonial power games" has already passed on the continent. Rather, just at the end of the Second World War, with the independence of the African countries, it replaced to the "neo-colonial power games" via the competitions: "capitalist-communist", "Anglo-Saxon-Francophone" and "conservative-progressive" — since the beginning of the twenty-first century until this COVID-19 era. The African market, political support, raw materials and geostrategic [geopolitics] have been the stakes of these power games in Africa for a long time. COVID-19, just came to play the role of accelerator of these games through its rise in level. In these games to the lee of COVID-19, the "conservatives" — dominated by the United States, are no longer just watching and criticizing, they have now gone on the offensive. The "progressives" — represented here by China, are rather retreating more and more to the defensive. Thus, Sino-African relations are being pushed further and further at the risk of its collapse. Because it is the "soft power" that serves as a means to the “mutual conservative-progressive jostling” in these games. While the sum of "conservatives’ soft power" looks to be more powerful than that of the "progressives" in Africa. But this paper, by taking the subprime crisis as its historical fact of analysis and game theory as its theoretical explanatory basis, rather explains and demonstrates why Sino-African relations may well withstand in these "conservative-progressive power games" in Africa during this COVID-19 era, even though they are being pushed further by the "conservative’s offensive”.