AMONG Westerners, the economic partnership between China and Africa is often overlooked. But in “China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing’s Expansion in Africa” (Nation Books, $27.50), Serge Michel and Michel Beuret examine the roots of this relationship  and argue that China is engaged in a conquest of Africa that will have worldwide economic implications.

As French journalists, Mr. Michel and Mr. Beuret bring an acute awareness of their own country’s colonial history to the China-Africa story. Mr. Michel, a former West Africa correspondent for Le Monde, has also reported from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Beuret, the foreign editor of the Swiss magazine L’Hebdo, has written extensively on human trafficking in China and Europe.

“China Safari” is a fascinating, provocative work of firsthand reporting that illuminates an important global economic story. The book also features a 16-page insert of color photographs shot by Paolo Woods, who puts human faces on the book’s sprawling story and highlights some of the stark juxtapositions of African laborers and their Chinese bosses.

In 1976, under Mao Zedong, China completed the Tan-Zam railway, linking Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. But, as the authors note, Chinese inroads into Africa really got a kick-start in 1995, when President Jiang Zemin made a speech urging Chinese business leaders to “Go abroad! Become world players!”