Sino-African relations have evoked a great deal of geo-strategic interest in recent years. Most attention has focused on China’s assistance to and growing involvement in the economic development of several African nations. Far less emphasis has been placed on Africans in China, and on African actors’ involvement in the Chinese economy, despite the importance of both to genuinely bilateral economic relations.This is one of the first studies to focus on South African foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mainland China. The research aims to identify and specify the key institutional factors that have contributed to the effectiveness or otherwise of South African firms entering and operating within the Chinese market. The research also investigates the characteristics and processes that have effectively shaped South African firms’ business strategies to negotiate the current Chinese institutional environment. The study’s primary empirical contribution is ten real-life case studies drawn from a cross-section of South African business actors who have sought to penetrate the Chinese market. These case studies are interrogated conceptually by means of a three-dimensional institutional model which explores the role of formal and informal business processes and practices in influencing business success and failure in the Sino-South African context.It will be of value to researchers, academics, policymakers, Sino-African business practitioners, and advanced students in the fields of international business, political economy, strategy, and Asian and African studies.