Over the past three decades, health cooperation has emerged as one of the most significant and enduring dimensions of China–Eritrea bilateral relations. Yet despite the expansion of this engagement, it remains largely absent from the scholarly literature on both China–Africa health cooperation and Eritrea's external partnerships. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, this paper examines the history, evolution, and drivers of China–Eritrea health cooperation since Eritrea's independence in 1993. It traces how cooperation has developed across several key domains and explores the factors that have shaped and sustained the partnership over time. In doing so, the paper provides the first systematic analysis of China–Eritrea health cooperation, contributes new empirical insight into China's health engagement in Africa at the country level, and highlights the value of moving beyond continental-level analyses to better understand the diversity and complexity of China–Africa relations.
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