NEW FORM OF COLONIALISM IN AFRICA

THE CHINESE COLONIALISM IN AFRICA

South Africa President and China president xi

In the late 70s China was one of the poorest countries in the world with per capital GDP that was one-fourth of the United States. Today, China’s GDP is almost half of the united state and it is poised to overtake the United States as the largest economy in the world. To support this booming economic growth, China’s demand for natural resources has become insatiable. In exchange for locking up access to natural resources, China has authorized billions of dollars in loans to African governments. With an increasing number of these governments beholden to China, a new imperial empire is taking shape in Africa.

As china trade between African states grew to about 700% during the 1990s, China became Africa’s largest trading partner. In 2011, the volume of trade increased a staggering 33% from the previous year to USD 166 billion. This trade dependence works both ways; one third of China’s oil supplies come from Angola and Nigeria. Up to 20% of China's demand for cotton is met by trade with Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The Cote d’Ivoire supplies the vast majority of China's’ cocoa. Namibia is one of China’s main suppliers of Fish, and Kenya remains one of the main suppliers of Chinese Coffee.

Chinese operation and policy in Africa

The Chinese government quest for natural resources to sustain their country economic development and growth make them to explore the Africa continent and trade agreement with the government of the Africa countries in exchange for their resources and construction of any of the country critically needed infrastructure. The Chinese government also authorized billions of dollars in loan to the Africa government in exchange for their resources.

Chinese government backed construction companies

Companies like the China Henan International Cooperation Group (CHICO) a Chinese state-owned construction and engineering company, and CICO, a subsidiary of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Group Co., Ltd have become China’s vanguard in its thrust into Africa. Rather than infusing local African economies with cash, stimulating growth, and increasing local capacity, the main benefit has been to Chinese enterprises.

Why Chinese policy works in Africa

 The political instability in Africa has forced China to begin acting aggressively to protect its national economic interests in Africa. African nations, facing political pressure to show some development progress, are induced to barter what are often their only significant sources of potential wealth for mediocre infrastructure that does little to develop their economy. Furthermore, lack of sustainability in this trading partnership creates an inevitable African dependence upon Chinese largess for future maintenance and rehabilitation of this infrastructure. Corruption and graft, rampant throughout African politics, has also enabled Chinese government backed businesses to influence political decision makers in their economic favour. 

In conclusion, as the Chinese abandoned their foreign policies, it is ostensible enough for us to see that, the Chinese government interests in Africa are motivated solely for China’s benefit.  By combining government action with corporate interests, the Chinese are locking up rights to billions of dollars of valuable commodities.

African nations, facing political pressure to show some development progress, are induced to barter what are often their only significant sources of potential wealth for mediocre infrastructure that does little to develop their economies and is worth a tiny fraction of the total value of the resources they sign over to the Chinese.

The lack of sustainability in this trading partnership creates an inevitable African dependence upon Chinese largess for future maintenance and rehabilitation of this infrastructure. Hence, this kind of approach to me is called colonialism. In a nutshell, this form of approach is a form of new economy colonialism which is unsustainable and will have severe consequence on the economy of all African state.