China's aid to Africa actively implements the "Aid for Trade" proposed by the United Nations in2005, hoping to help Africa to develop trade, promote economic growth, and get rid of poverty through aid.Based on the analysis of the linkage mechanism between the impact from outward foreign direct investment andforeign aid on export upgrading, the panel method is used to empirically regress the impact of China's aid andoutward foreign direct investment on African export upgrade in global value chain. The empirical results showthat China's aid and outward foreign direct investment to Africa are conducive to the amount A frican exports.At the same time, China's OFDI in Africa is conducive to three dimensions of Afrian export upgrade in globalvalue chain. While, the aid to Africa is only beneficial to the processes upgrade. The impact from China's OFDIand the impact from aid on the export upgrading just stay in а stage of complementation.