Abstract Despite the rapidly expanding literature on China’s engagement in Africa, US policy responses remain analytically fragmented. This article conceptualizes US think tanks as epistemic–political intermediaries between academic research and policy decision-making. It provides a systematic assessment of 386 publications produced by 28 US think tanks between 2005 and 2025. The analysis shows that think tank engagement has expanded and become more specialized over time, with thematic attention shifting from development-oriented perspectives toward geostrategic and security framings. Publication trends broadly correspond to major Chinese initiatives in Africa, suggesting that shifts in China’s Africa policy have played an important agenda-setting role within US policy discourse. At the same time, institutional positioning shapes analytical approaches, with Washington-based and university-affiliated centers differing in methodological orientation and interpretive emphasis. Across the literature, three recurring debates—development versus competition, opportunity versus vulnerability, and the implications of China’s security presence—structure distinct interpretive positions. A case study of infrastructure finance and debt sustainability further illustrates how similar empirical evidence produces divergent policy conclusions. Taken together, the findings highlight the growing securitization and strategic reframing of China in Africa and contribute to scholarship on foreign policy knowledge production under conditions of great power competition.
Zhu et al. (2026) studied this question.