China's Poverty Reduction Diplomacy in Africa: From Development Aid to a Governance‐Embedded Alliance

ABSTRACT China‐Africa poverty reduction cooperation has expanded recently, while its development logic remains shoehorned into aid and soft power debates. This study investigates China's poverty reduction diplomacy in Africa, framing it as a governance‐embedded alliance rather than traditional development aid. A structured, SWOT‐based, theory‐guided matrix was used to synthesize a qualitative analysis of FOCAC action plans, Chinese policy papers, and related literature. The findings reveal that the alliance generates implementation advantages through state coordination, infrastructure prioritization, and sovereignty‐sensitive cooperation. Simultaneously, its poverty outcomes are inherently conditioned by institutional capacity, accountability gaps, and transparency challenges. The analysis reveals a structural tension: while governance is incorporated at the strategic level through the non‐interference principle, it remains significantly absent at the operational level. The study concludes with a policy emphasis on incorporating explicit governance reforms and accountability structures within the Cooperative framework as essential to transforming the alliance into a sustainable, genuinely developmental partnership with desirable anti‐poverty outcomes.