Artificial Intelligence (AI)/XINHUA
Cornered by climate change, land degradation, severe water stresses and an influx of pests, a growing number of African countries, including Ghana, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, have turned to Chinese-made agricultural drones to boost precision agriculture.
This form of farming maximises crop production and the efficient use of scarce resources amidst crippling economic pressures. Chinese-manufactured tools are helping farmers in Africa reduce water consumption as well as pesticide and fertiliser use significantly.
From the “old three” exports of clothing, furniture, and appliances, to the 2023 “new three” of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells, China entered a new industrial evolution in the first half of 2026, now defined by its newest industrial champions: robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and innovative drugs.
China now commands at least 97 percent of global humanoid robot shipments. Its AI products, such as drones, are a more affordable and highly capable option for resource-constrained African countries. In 2026, Chinese biotech innovation is highly notable and impactful in Africa.
Chinese-made industrial hardware and robotic arms are extensively used in Africa, South America and the Middle East. China’s new technologies are a demonstration of the best from the eastern country and their acceptance globally.
There is a notable recognition in developing countries that China’s industrial evolution is not simply a shift in labels from furniture to robotics, but a highly strategic economic shift from exporting physical goods to knowledge-based technological capabilities in keeping with modern times.
In the first five months of 2026, China exported 10.377 million robot units worth around $3 billion across the world. China is helping Africa break through its own industrialisation through research and scientific collaboration, such as joint laboratories and technology transfer.
Leveraging advances in medical robotics delivered through various China-Africa technology transfers, China’s Health Silk Road is enabling Africa’s resource-constrained health systems to use minimally invasive tools to deliver quality health services.
The China-Africa Robotic Surgery Training Centre and the China-Africa Endoscopic Technology Training Centre are highly advanced specialised training and regional hubs, helping push the continent away from short-term to long-term disease control partnerships.
China’s new industrial era is not only defined by the magnitude of Chinese-manufactured products in use across Africa’s farms, schools, roads, hospitals and households, but also by the deliberate effort to build Africa’s capacity toward local manufacturing.
This is highly transformative, as Africa has historically imported at least 70 percent of its essential medicine and nearly all of its vaccines. Today, China is either solely or collaboratively building, furnishing and equipping local drug manufacturing plants.
The goal is to manufacture products in Africa, designed with local realities in mind, for use in Africa. In Ethiopia, a Chinese firm is producing large quantities of IV bags, injectables and essential generics in the form of oral solid tablets to meet the increasing domestic demand for these life-saving clinical products.
Meanwhile, China is in talks with various governments to establish Africa’s first local insulin production plant to drastically reduce the cost of treating diabetes. Nigeria has already emerged as the planned regional biotechnology hub.
Nigeria’s partnership with China is expected to end the ongoing and historical over-reliance on imported insulin. China has invited Africa to build a “global community of health for all,” especially amidst the unprecedented disintegration of traditional Western donors.
Chinese technology is rapidly expanding in Africa largely because, in addition to being accessible and affordable, it comes with infrastructural investments and hands-on educational collaboration. For instance, officially inaugurated in January 2023, the Africa CDC headquarters were built and equipped by the government of China.
The new era of industrial evolution is also largely about building on past successes to enable African populations to overcome their most pressing problems. In 2015, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou earned a Nobel Prize for discovering the anti-malaria drug artemisinin, which dramatically improved global malaria treatment.
By a wide margin, Africa is the region most affected by malaria, accounting for nearly 95 per cent of all malaria cases and 95 per cent of all malaria deaths globally. Today, China is equipping African public health officials with AI-enabled tools for disease surveillance, tracking and outbreak prediction.
In response to the deadliest diseases on the continent, Chinese pharmaceutical footprints and innovation include partnerships with local companies in Nigeria to produce HIV treatment, and in Côte d’Ivoire to increase production of antimalarial and antibiotics to up to 5 million tablets annually.
Over the past three decades, Chinese household brands and electronics have ceased to be a preserve for high-income earners. “Made in China” brands found their way, in large volumes, into middle- and low- income households as the continent increasingly looks “East” and away from traditional Western imports.
Today, in this new phase of China’s new technologies – shifting away from the original “old three” of clothing, furniture, and appliances to the 2023 “new three” of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells, and the new technologies in 2026 – lessons for Africa’s own path to lasting industrialisation abound.
The author is a Kenya-based journalist. She regularly writes articles for media outlets including Global Times. [email protected]
