Chinese imports, employment, poverty, and conflicts: the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa would be stronger

Sub-Saharan Africa will need to provide jobs for the 620 million Africans who will join the working-age population by 2050. But China is competing with local craft and industrial employment by flooding the region with its products. Less isolated and more powerful, the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a common project, could thus better protect their interests.

Chinese imports destroy jobs and official development assistance creates few

In its 2025 report, the World Bank stated that "the pace of growth remains too slow to significantly reduce extreme poverty and to create enough good-quality jobs to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding workforce. Africa is undergoing a demographic transformation of a scale and speed unmatched anywhere else in the world. “ The financial institution also estimates that sub-Saharan Africa needs to create 25 million jobs per year, while only 3 million formal jobs are created each year, and warned as early as 2018 that the region could be home to 90% of the world's extreme poverty in 2050.”

In September 2025, in its article “China continues historic acceleration of exports to Africa,” the RFI news site wrote, “In Africa, China has generated a $60 billion trade surplus since the beginning of 2025, almost as much as in the entire previous year.” “This shift illustrates, first and foremost, an accelerated reorganization of global flows: rather than slowing down, Chinese manufacturing is pouring its surpluses into emerging markets eager for cheap products, but this dynamic has a downside: Chinese products, which are unbeatable on price, risk undermining local African industries, which are unable to compete.”

But with sub-Saharan Africa needing to provide 25 million jobs a year for its young people, there is cause for concern about an invasion of often disposable and polluting products. This model, which creates dependence on Beijing, is likely to destroy informal craft jobs and jeopardize the prospects for creating a large number of jobs in the manufacturing industry.

Development aid policy (ODA), which has failed in sub-Saharan Africa despite $2 trillion being spent over 60 years, will not prevent mass unemployment and the much-feared humanitarian chaos either. Nevertheless, a new development paradigm that brings together states and populations could finally enable Africa to meet this great challenge of the 21st century.

A single African country, especially one indebted to China, cannot stand up to this economic giant, but countries united around a common project and gradually establishing a customs union with a common external tariff (CET) would be better able to protect their interests and sovereignty.

The United States of Sub-Saharan Africa (USSA)

The systemic approach (industry, finance, social issues, demographics, trade, geopolitics, etc.) of the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa (USSA) project would promote the construction of a financial architecture whose rigor and credibility could generate the inflow of public and private capital necessary to implement the industrialization program for sub-Saharan Africa. Cooperation with international industrial companies possessing know-how and technologies would enable the industrialization of the region.

On a macroeconomic level, this strategy would lead to a transition from informal jobs to formal structures, thereby automatically promoting the broadening of the tax base. The proliferation of structured companies of all sizes would enable states to increase their capacity to finance infrastructure and public services. This break with dependence on China and Official Development Assistance would strengthen the economic sovereignty of African nations.

The holistic dimension of this program of general interest would facilitate the emergence of a new social contract desired by the people. It would coordinate economic investment and land use planning. Business parks and new cities would have nearby public services such as health and education, but the entire population would ultimately benefit from this modernization. By offering concrete economic prospects and a viable alternative to exile, the project would be in line with the demographic realities and aspirations of African youth.

While the African Union's (AU) regulatory mechanisms have proven ineffective in the face of regional instability, our project offers a solution. The integration of interdependent industrial value chains will create a community of economic interests among states. This solidarity, reinforced by the pooling of a common security force, would promote cohesion and reduce tensions, thereby better ensuring the protection of civilian populations.

Consultant and entrepreneur Francis Journot also conducts economic research. He is the founder of the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa (USSA) and International Convention for a Global Minimum Wage projects, as well as the Program for the Industrialization of Sub-Saharan Africa.