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Aligned with critical geopolitics, this article examines the unevenness of geopolitical outreach in the discursive representations of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis of Chinese diplomatic authorities’ Web site postings in fifty-two African countries. This study not only illustrates the spatiality and temporality of different agencies’ discursive practices in Africa, but also diversifies Chinese outreach to Africa in the China–Africa and BRI study fields. Specifically, the Chinese diplomacy does not simply unfold through formal geopolitics played out at traditional diplomatic sites, but also involves geopolitical outreach at both local African and domestic Chinese media sites as well as via the diplomatic institutional networks. Nevertheless, the discursive representations do not necessarily correlate with the diplomatic relationships between China and African countries; neither are they oriented by the “resource” narratives and China’s imports from African countries. More likely, the market status indexed by population and Chinese exports to African countries significantly correlates with the discursive representations. The study also demonstrates the spatial unevenness of Chinese geopolitical outreach among primary countries, strategic countries, and ordinary countries in Africa, which to some extent counters the popular narratives of bilateral relationships between China and respective African countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative and Chinese Overseas Diplomatic Authorities: Discursive Representations and the Geopolitical Outreach in Africa