Since the mid-1990s, important changes in both the Chinese governments approach to expertise and China-Africa relations have created new challenging opportunities for the community of Chinas Africa watchers.Research on Africa has rapidly become a hot issue, and new spaces for political interaction and contributions in public diplomacy have also emerged.This paper explores the main characteristics and trends of the current community of experts on Africa in Chinese think tanks.My perception is that Chinese civilian think tanks have gradually entered the public policy arena and started to challenge semi-official institutions by using new channels and communication means in order to play a more proactive role in China-Africa relations and foreign policy.On the other side, the government actively encourages new bottom-up initiatives and seems to actively seek insight from academia in order to gather more useful information and develop effective foreign policy lines.Yet, the mushrooming of research communities on Africa in recent years also raises new questions on Chinas research on Africa and on its perspectives of development.