Based on an extensive literature review, in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and anecdotal evidence, this text examines China’s engagement with East Africa (notably Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) and considers these relationships through the lens of history, diplomacy, education, trade, media, cultural exchanges, and infrastructure. It probes the sentiments of pessimism, optimism, and pragmatism to explore perceptions about China in East Africa Africa. China’s ancient connection to the East African coast, as well as other incidents of contact in the past, are analyzed from the viewpoint of the deployment of Chinese soft power capital in current times.

The book notably examines the significant role China is playing in the construction of new infrastructure and housing throughout East Africa and addresses China’s involvement in the natural resources sector and the political debate surrounding the construction of gas and oil pipelines, itsinvestment in the tourism sector, in the news media and information and communication technology sectors as well as in educational and cultural programs.

Dr. Wekesa is a senior lecturer at the Wits Centre for Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and deputy director at the African Centre for the Study of the United States at the same university. An undergraduate alumnus of the University of Nairobi, he earned his master's and doctoral degrees in international communication from the Communication University of China, Beijing, China in 2012 and 2015 respectively. Wekesa worked as a journalist in Kenya rising to the position of editorial director of a government newspaper. He was awarded a Commonwealth Press Union’s Harry Brittain Fellowship in 2002 and is the inaugural Africa Visiting Fellow at the University of Southern California's Africa Initiative.