While the rest of the world, especially the Occident is engaged in supporting one or the other pro-tagonist in various armed clashes, China, besides offering its good offices for mediation, is making inroads globally, promoting investment and infrastructure building. Besides Asia, Europe and Latin America, China has made overwhelming ingress in Africa. Chinese investment in the second larg-est continent commenced in 2000 and currently Beijing funds one in every five projects comprising dams, power generation units, ports, railway networks and roads. The Chinese plan to launch pro-grams of infrastructure development, agricultural modernization, supporting manufacturing, diversi-fying the economies of African nations and creating jobs.
China’s investment in Africa is multifaceted and extensive, largely in the realm of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). They include Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), focusing on sectors like oil, mining, infrastructure building, manufacturing, telecommunications, and agriculture. Chinese in-vestments comprise substantial development loans to various African nations while seeking ac-cess to natural resources.
Under the umbrella of BRI, China has established Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for the promo-tion of trade and economic cooperation and boosting industrial and economic growth. Beijing also envisages investment in natural resource extraction, such as oil, gas, minerals and metals. In a bid to share its own rich experience in the field of agriculture with Africa, China has laid down broad based investment strategies to enhance food security and boost local economies. Resul-tantly, this investment has helped spur economic growth and infrastructure development in numerous African countries, making China the continent’s largest trading partner and a major source of FDI.
In retrospect, China’s investment in Africa brings both significant benefits as well as notable chal-lenges. The boons of Chinese investment comprise the construction of roads, railways, ports and airports, improving connectivity and boosting economic activities. There are visible fruits to be reaped through the increased FDI, which has stimulated economic growth in many African coun-tries, creating jobs and enhancing local industries.
One of the primary advantages of the investment is that Chinese companies often bring advanced technologies and expertise, which they are eager to share with their partners and help modernize African industries. Simultaneously, China’s demand for African commodities has expanded trade, benefiting African economies. As mentioned earlier, SEZs and industrial parks established by Chi-na have promoted industrialization and economic diversification.
Chinese investment has given rise to some challenges although they have been blown out of pro-portion by Beijing’s detractors yet many African countries have accumulated significant debt due to Chinese loans, raising concerns about debt sustainability.
China’s critics target a few Chinese projects, criticizing them for their alleged environmental im-pact, including deforestation and pollution. Some human rights groups find it opportune to dispar-age China for its supposed poor labour practices and limited employment opportunities for local workers in Chinese-run projects. Another apparent cause of concern is that the focus on resource extraction can lead to economic imbalances, with countries becoming overly dependent on a few commodities. Foreign powers that had kept different African nations under their hegemonic influence for centu-ries and some even exploited the rich resources from Africa are now wary of what they perceive as China’s growing influence in Africa, raising alarm bells for what they term challenges to African concerns about political and economic sovereignty. The inhabitants of Africa were kidnapped and transported to the newly established colonies in the USA under appalling conditions to work as slaves for centuries. African origin citizens in the US and Europe continue to face racial prejudice.
Contrarily, China’s investment has brought substantial benefits to Africa, the challenges need to be managed carefully to ensure sustainable and equitable development. Interestingly, the US and Europe that subjugated Africans to slavery and manipulation now have mixed views on China’s investment in Africa, reflecting both concerns and strategic interests.
The US views China’s investment as part of a broader strategic competition. Perhaps out of strate-gic rivalry, the US has openly expressed its concerns that China’s influence in Africa could under-mine US interests and lead to a shift in geopolitical alliances.
Washington DC has also expressed worries regarding the debt burden on African countries, aris-ing due to Chinese loans, fearing it could lead to loss of sovereignty and economic dependency. Beijing has dispelled such fears.
US has also raised criticisms pertaining to the transparency and governance standards of Chinese projects, with concerns about alleged corruption and lack of accountability.
Most of Europe comprises former colonial powers that ruled over different parts of Africa, milking them dry of rich resources and even after the liberation of different African states, many of them continued to meddle in their internal affairs and at times staging or backing coup d’état to usher in leaderships which would grant concessions to the former colonial powers. The same European states now perceive China’s investment as economic competition, particularly in sectors like infra-structure and natural resources. Europe echoes US concerns, emphasizing the need for sustain-able development and adherence to environmental and labour standards in avenues of Chinese investment.
The silver lining in the cloud is that despite the competition, there are also opportunities for collabo-ration. Some European countries are exploring ways to collaborate with China on joint projects that align with their development goals in Africa.
Overall, while both the US and Europe recognize the economic benefits of China’s investment in Africa, they are also cautious about the long-term implications for governance, debt sustainability and geopolitical balance.
It should be noted that Africa is no longer colonized by imperialists, who vanquished and con-quered different regions. The different nations comprising Africa won their independence after bloody struggles and sacrifices. They not only cherish their hard-earned independence but are also capable of taking rational decisions regarding their development and progress. Climate change causing droughts, famine, pandemics and other challenges affects Africa too but its leadership is fully cognizant and qualified to take decisions in their best interest and they must be aware of the pitfalls and traps of bad decisions. If they have opted for and welcomed Chinese investment, it must be respected and not criticized baselessly.
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
(sultanm.hali@gmail.com)
