He questioned the depth of Africa-China relations, describing the partnership as “heavy on form and very light on substance.” 

Prof Amoah made the call when he delivered the first of the 2026 J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) in Accra on Tuesday. 

The lecture, on the theme “Africa-China Relations: Partnership, Peonage, Pawnage, and Possibilities?” examined the evolution of Africa-China ties and their implications for industrialisation, foreign direct investment and power relations. 

Prof Amoah said the lecture sought to “critically re-examine Africa-China entanglement in the light of imagining a new reality in the international political economy.” 

He traced Africa-China relations through three phases. The first, from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, was ideologically driven and rooted in shared anti-imperialist sentiments.  

Prof Amoah cited the construction of the TAZARA Railway as a concrete expression of early solidarity and noted that Ghana established diplomatic relations with China on July 5, 1960, under the administration of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. 

The second phase, spanning the 1980s to the end of the 20th century, saw the ideological rationale scaled down and overlaid by resource and power considerations, as China sought to consolidate its global standing.  

Prof Amoah referenced the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000 as a key institutional development that formalised continent-wide engagement. 

He said the third phase, beginning around 2011 when China became the world’s second-largest economy, was marked by China’s “obsession with the maintenance of its new superpower state.” 

On economic engagement, Prof Adu Amoah said Africa’s long-standing aspiration for industrialisation had not significantly advanced despite decades of engagement with China.  

Quoting research by African scholars, he said surges in commodity demand from China “may lock African countries in the traditional commodities export sector and result in diminished manufacturing export opportunities.” 

Prof Amoah noted that only 11.5 per cent of Africa’s workforce was employed in industry, unchanged from three decades ago.  

He also observed that China’s FDI inflows into Africa remained relatively small as a percentage of its global stock, standing at 4.4 per cent in 2021, and were concentrated mainly in resource-rich countries and sectors such as mining and construction. 

Prof Adu Amoah said: “The so-called Africa-China partnership from the get-go seems to have proved a quiet, vapid one, heavy on form and very light on substance.” 

He urged Ghana, given its historic and intellectual position on the continent, to play a leading role in reconstructing Africa-China relations to prioritise genuine industrial transformation and balanced engagement. 

The J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures are organised annually by GAAS in honour of Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, scholar, lawyer and one of the leading figures in Ghana’s independence movement.  

The series provides a platform for distinguished scholars and public intellectuals to address major national and international issues.