Ethiopia, situated in the Horn of Africa and next to Djibouti where China is building its first ever foreign military base, is a key node along the proposed route of the One Belt One Road, now known as the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). This ambitious project to reshape the world through infrastructure connectivity, however, is hampered by domestic conflicts and local opposition.

Early this year, Chinese state-owned companies (SOEs) scored a success when they completed the construction of a 750 km Addis Ababa-Djibouti electrical railway. The railway has prompted Ethiopia to engage China in its efforts to maintain economic growth at eight per cent a year.

… Alessandro Arduino is a Visiting Senior Fellow with the China Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also Co-Director of the Security & Crisis Management Programme at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences – UNITO.