Solange Guo Chatelard

Solange Guo Chatelard is a leading voice in the interdisciplinary field of China–Africa studies,
with particular expertise in the geopolitics of China’s global rise. She has conducted long-
term ethnographic research in both China and Zambia, and her work focuses on China’s
domestic economic transformation and its expanding global footprint.

She is co-director and co-producer of the award-winning documentaries When China Met
Africa (BBC/ARTE) and King Cobra and the Dragon (Al Jazeera), and has authored academic
articles, policy papers, and media commentary on Chinese migration, development politics,
and state-building in China and Africa. Her work has been featured in scholarly and policy
outlets as well as major international media including the BBC, France 24, and CNN.

Uniquely positioned as both a China specialist and a Global China scholar, Chatelard has
published on China’s rural development and modernisation policies, grounding her expertise
in the domestic political and economic transformations shaping contemporary China. Her
ethnographic fieldwork in Zambia and broader Africa–China research give her an equally
strong grasp of the global implications of China’s rise. This dual perspective enables her to
connect internal Chinese policy dynamics with their international impact.

Chatelard has held research positions at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology,
Sciences Po Paris, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where she is currently a
Research Associate. She has contributed to high-level policy dialogues across Europe, China,
and Africa, and advised international organisations.

A founding board member of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China (CA/AC) Research
Network, she now leads the network as its Executive Director, based in Brussels.