It was a tiny entry in the Aug. 17 online edition of People’s Daily, China’s most influential newspaper. The headline read, “East China port does booming trade with Africa.” The port in question was Longkou, in bustling Shandong Province, which is preparing to launch two additional ocean carrier routes to Africa later this year. In the past seven months, the article quoted Shandong Provincial Bureau of Port Shipping Services as saying that 41 ships carrying cement and “sundry goods” — machinery, electronics, chemicals, textiles, garments and leather products, all of which are manufactured in Shandong — left the port bound...