Working in Africa through much of the past decade, I saw signs of Chinese imperialism everywhere.
The investment company I ran, funded mainly by U.S. and Canadian investors, would face off against entities backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in business dealings and financing transactions. This competition effectively tipped the tables through government-subsidized loans and briefcases of cash. Their agreements were often linked to political outcomes.
Africa has become the center stage of China’s global ambitions as a neo-colonial imperial power. Arguably, no other country has had more influence—at least in the post-colonial era—on the African continent than China, for better and for worse.
Conversely, the United States has completely missed the target and ceded the field by focusing on enfeebling donations and misguided philanthropy rather than leading with market-based financing, commercial investment, and practical education that would counter the CCP’s ideological and financial onslaught.
Communist China has been involved in Africa since decolonization and the independence movements of the 1960s and ‘70s. The CCP was the main military supplier to the revolutionary Tanzanian government and supported dictator Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the dominant Maoist-Leninist party in Mozambique. China was the primary support for Joseph Kabila’s inept and kleptocratic 20-year dictatorship in the Democratic Republic of Congo (a misnomer if there ever was one; the Congo remains an ungovernable and near stateless flashpoint of regional instability).
China’s involvement in Africa eventually migrated from fomenting revolutions to investing in critical infrastructure and lending to governments and the commercial sector. Chinese presence in African business and financial markets is now ubiquitous across much of the continent, to the point of cliché and neo-colonial stereotypes. China has invested more than $300 billion in Africa in the past 15 years, and trade between China and Africa now approaches $200 billion annually.
Today, upward of 1 million Chinese are estimated to be working in Africa for more than 10,000 Chinese companies. In contrast, most of the perhaps thousands of Americans working in Africa are employed by governments or nongovernmental organizations, not commercial enterprises. This is a regrettable loss for Africa and the United States.
At the same time, China has also increased its military and security presence on the continent. Today, China has thousands of troops and military personnel deployed across several African countries. Private Chinese security companies have established entire industries protecting Chinese businessmen and VIPs, which can serve a paramilitary role in the event of unrest.
Chinese investment in Africa has been a double-edged sword. To be sure, Africa desperately needs the critical infrastructure that China has been at the forefront of developing. The benefits of better roads and rails, more reliable power, and affordable mobile telephony accrue to many. However, Chinese investment has come laden with exorbitant hidden costs. Rather than furthering African independence, it has increased indebtedness, which threatens to throw African nations back into a state of colonial subservience. The millions of jobs created by these massive projects have been filled by imported Chinese labor, not local Africans. The result has been persistent domestic unemployment well above 50 percent in many nations. Agriculture and other commodities are exported to China rather than helping to reduce persistent food insecurity on the continent.
Chinese investment in Africa is an imperialistic endeavor. China seeks to ensure reliable supply lines of critical industrial and agricultural commodities at favorable prices and to provide jobs for otherwise unemployable workers in China. Like the commodities of copper, coal, and cobalt unearthed for industrial production in China, Chinese investment in Africa is extractive. To make matters worse, Chinese finished products are imported and forced on African markets, which undercuts domestic production and discourages local industries that cannot compete against Chinese subsidies. This is classic colonialism.
Systemically corrupt Chinese business practices undermine legitimate efforts toward greater accountability, transparency, and integrity according to the rule of law. Chinese investment and business activity in Africa is commonly accompanied by bribes, whether of cash or excessive gifts, and circular kickbacks to win contracts and tenders. Unlike U.S. and European businesses operating in Africa, which are subject to vigorous enforcement of strict anti-corruption laws, China does not enforce anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws. There is an implicit understanding among African government and business leaders that the Chinese do business the old-fashioned way. Many reject it, but for others, the temptation is too great.
Over the past decade, the United States has somewhat belatedly attempted to respond to the Chinese salient in Africa. It remains to be seen whether the West’s renewed interest in Africa will be too little, too late. African nations rightly have deep reservations about allowing the former colonial powers of Europe to return through the back door. And so far, the commitment of the United States remains half-hearted at best, with more headlines than substance. In any event, Africa will be an important battleground in the ongoing geopolitical struggle with China for many years to come.
