China’s involvement in African security has deepened in recent years, with growing multilateral engagements with the AU and the UN. China is also taking several measures to deal with non-traditional security threats – mainly issues of survival arising outside military sources, such as human trafficking, food and water security, terrorism, infectious diseases and energy security. This policy insights paper discusses three aspects of the China–Africa security relationship – Chinese citizens’ physical security, pandemic diseases and environmental damage – to highlight some of the evolving challenges and the ways in which China responds to these. These responses illustrate China’s deepening role across these fields and its increasing use of multilateral organisations in engaging with such issues.
