The Maghreb and the Middle Kingdom: China’s Ev Supply-Chain Diplomacy in an Era of Geopolitical Rivalry

This article examines how China’s expanding investments in electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries in Egypt and Morocco are reshaping global production networks amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry. It argues that US–China competition and European regulatory pressures do not independently determine investment relocation; rather, they increase the strategic value of countries that already possess advantages in market access, industrial capacity, logistics infrastructure, resources, and trade connectivity. Integrating geo-economics, hedging behaviour, and technological dependency, the article conceptualises Chinese EV expansion as a form of geo-economic statecraft in which commercial strategies intersect with efforts to diversify production and preserve technological competitiveness. A comparative analysis shows that Egypt and Morocco occupy distinct positions within China’s evolving EV strategy: Egypt functions primarily as a regional assembly and distribution platform cantered on the Suez Canal Economic Zone, while Morocco has developed into an export-oriented battery and component hub linked to European automotive networks. The findings demonstrate that Chinese investment can support industrial upgrading and technological learning while also reinforcing asymmetries where critical capabilities remain externally controlled. North Africa has therefore become a strategic arena where Chinese firms, local governments, and external powers negotiate the future geography of green-technology production.