China's Expanding Role in Africa

[AdamG]

Buying African votes in the UN.

China will write off any amount owed by indebted countries or developing nations, President Xi Jinping said. China is offering US$60 billion in financial support and a debt write-off to impoverished African nations- no strings attached, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday
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The Chinese official laid out the extensive financial strategy to African leaders, with plans to invest US$5 billion in African exports, US$ 10 billion for "development financing" and US$15 billion in grants, interest-free loans, and concessional loans; a credit line of US$20 billion. Xi said their friendship was time-honored and that China's investment in Africa came with no political strings attached.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...0903-0005.html

[AdamG]

Double-tapped.
Good multi-article-cited background piece -

At a time when local fishermen in Somalia are struggling to compete with foreign vessels that are depleting fishing stocks, the government has granted 31 fishing licenses to China. Since assuming power last year, this is the first time that Somali president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has given fishing rights to foreigners, news site BBC reports.

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/...ights-to-china

[AdamG]

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China may be preparing to seize some major assets in the African nation of Kenya, as a result of debt-trap diplomacy. African media reports that Kenya may soon be forced to relinquish control of its largest and most lucrative port in Mombasa to Chinese control.

Other assets related to the inland shipment of goods from the port, including the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi, and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), may also be compromised in the event of a Chinese port takeover.

Kenya has reportedly taken extremely large loans from the Communist government for the development of some major highways, and especially for the SGR, which forms a crucial transport link to and from Nairobi for the import and export of goods through Mombasa.

In November, Moody’s noted that Kenya is at high risk of losing strategic assets because of debts owed to Beijing. Local media began to express concern that Chinese lenders may be angling to seize assets, since it does not appear the Kenyan government will be capable to repaying the loans.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/new...CtLiUwTYLGnCbQ

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a photo essay in the RUSI Journal (behind a pay wall) on 'Climate Change and Djibouti' referring to the Chinese mining millions of tons of salt from Lac or Lake Assal - is that the reason for their commitment? Never seen this aspect being mentioned before.

A quick search confirmed the Chinese mining. See:http://www.lukasspieker.com/blog/845...alt-lac-assal/ and:https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...203157690.html

[davidbfpo]

A useful map caught via Twitter and the article is full of detail, for example which ports are completed or not.
Link:https://www.csis.org/analysis/assess...-african-ports

[Bill Moore]

David,

Sometimes I think these studies miss the real essence of the threat. Normally we should encourage the development of economic infrastructure in Africa regardless of what country provides that assistance. Africa’s rise economic rise is long overdue, and failure to support the African nations and regional organizations develop in a way that can provide jobs to rapidly expanding youth bulge will lead to instability far beyond Africa. We have already seen the beginning of this instability with the mass migration into Europe, and it will only get worse if current trends continue.

Is China part of the solution, or part of the problem? To see the threat clearly, first you have to disregard the communist party narrative, it sounds great, but it is a lie. Like a block of ice, this lie rapidly evaporates when exposed to the sunlight. China’s ports benefit China and corrupt African officials in most cases, as in any situation we shouldn’t paint with too wide sh, because there may be situations that deviate from the norm. To sustain China’s miraculous economic growth (much like Japan’s phenomenal growth previously), China understandably needs access to resources. These resources include oil, minerals, fish, and food (agriculture), and let us not forget access to endangered species. China also wants to expand its market for Chinese goods, to include the deadly counterfeit drugs they frequently sale to various African nations. Most of the above equates to the reinforcing the 'resource trap' that much of Africa has been trapped in for decades. An economy that is dependent upon a particular resource, and often one primary market to sell it to, for various reasons tends to breed corrupt politicians that control the trade and see no incentive to diversify their economy. Rich in oil or another resource, yet suffers from massive poverty.

To add to this burden, China is pushing its ideology, which is socialism with Chinese characteristics. In reality, it is authoritarian capitalism. China is now exporting its tools and methods to enable dictators to enforce control over its population (smart city technologies, facial recognition, internet monitoring and control, social credit system, etc.). Authoritarian governance simply locks bad into place, further limited the ability of the nation to evolve economically and politically, which serves China’s purposes perfectly.

I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn’t mind China displacing the U.S.A. as the world’s superpower if they embraced the liberal, rules, and norms based international order. When the USA replaced the UK as the world power, there were no significant disruptions, since we generally had the same values (minus the UK’s colonies). However, a China-led world order would be very, very different. Human rights progress would be reversed, all religions would be under threat, democracy would be at risk, and instead of a win-win approach to economic development, China would seek to generate a global economic order that solely benefited China. This world will become increasingly destabilized, and the risk of major wars will increase.

China “could” do much good in Africa and the world writ large if it wasn’t led by a racist, Han, communist party that embraces an agenda that threatens what most people hold dear.

[davidbfpo]

Caught this news report a little late on an unheard of website 'Construction Kenya':

Tanzania President John Magufuli has indefinitely suspended plans to construct what would have been East Africa’s largest port in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, after disagreeing with Chinese investors on the terms of the highly ambitious infrastructure project.

There is a little more detail on:https://www.constructionkenya.com/31...-construction/

Might have missed this:

In October 2018, for example, Sierra Leone cancelled plans to build a $318 million (Sh32 billion) China-funded airport outside the capital Freetown.....While cancelling the project, President Julius Maada Bio, said Sierra Leone could not afford to repay the loan – adding that priority should be to make Lungi airport viable.

Link for quote:https://www.constructionkenya.com/31...-construction/ and:https://www.constructionkenya.com/53...-sierra-leone/