Well, seeing as how you could fit three China's inside Africa, we really need to look at a region of Africa.
This could be done, but would require at least a couple of PODs, to get at least the Toucouleur/Wassoulou Empire, Sokoto Caliphate, and Egyptian Khedivate stabilized and firmly in control of the Sahel and Nile region between the three of them. From there you'd need an America-analogue, likely the US itself in fact, to force open trade of the region, toppling the regional monopolies on trade & foreign policy of France & Britain.