Chinese Investments in Cameroon in Belt and Road Initiative African-Partnership: Legal Protection and Sustainability Policies

Over the last fifteen years, China has become a much more aggressive global player than it was before the 2000s. Linked to its economic and financial ambitions in the global arena, this offensiveness also positions it as the leading foreign investor in Africa, with a stock of FDI estimated at US $172,768.5 million in 2019. As the world’s second-largest economy, it will account for US $17.73 trillion in 2021, growing by 5.4% in 2023. In Central Africa, China invested over US $193 billion in 2018. This chapter examines the relationship between Chinese investors in Central Africa, and Cameroon in particular, and legal investment standards and procedures over the long term. Distancing itself from the media discourse on China’s indifference to legal standards, the chapter relies on the analysis of empirical data, sources, and reports to account for this relationship. The aim is to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries, characterized by mutual respect and win-win partnership. In Cameroon, foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to $142 million in 2018 alone, far outstripping that of traditional partners such as the European Union and the United States, or partners from other emerging countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and Turkey. Having joined China’s mega-project The Belt and Road Initiative since 2018, Cameroon benefited on May 30, 2023, from the granting of a new loan of 18,000 billion FCFA from China to boost its National Development Strategy 2020–2030. This loan has reignited disputes over the indebtedness, corruption, transparency, quality, technical follow-up, and economic and ecological sustainability of Chinese investments in Cameroon. Another aspect of these disputes concerns the legal architecture applicable to these investments and the legal standards and regulations governing them. Our chapter focuses on the legal protection and economic sustainability of Chinese financing in Cameroon. It questions the national and international legal framework underpinning these investments, questions their effectiveness or sustainability, and proposes alternatives to the abuses observed. The chapter is a contribution to the strengthening and adaptability of Cameroon’s legal arsenal, with a view to better securing and optimizing foreign investment in general, and Chinese investment in particular, within the framework of Sino-African cooperation in the new era.