Link to Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/9/chinas-new-foreign-minister-heads-to-africa-for-first-trip
Summary of Article: The new Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang is to visit 5 African states and the secretary-general of the Arab League in early January, continuing a 30-year tradition of a trip to Africa by a foreign minister each year. China claims it seeks to uphold its “traditional” friendships and build upon its relations with African states. However, western states and philosophers have accused China of promoting a parasitic relationship through “debt entrapment” and “palace diplomacy” by using mass infrastructure projects to garner influence with local politicians. Stephen Chan, a world politics professor, proclaims these types of moves by China, Russia, and western states are increasing tensions and are brewing a new “cold war” centered in Africa.
Analysis: China is very likely using debt entrapment to take advantage of poor African states. Africa has most of the outstanding untapped natural resources in the world, which African states are unable to afford to extract to strengthen their economic situations. Chinese companies offer to help pay for the cost of equipment, but it tends to come at a cost of a cut of the money made and or a tax. This strategy employed by China essentially acts as a “trojan horse” to allow it to garner resources in relatively untapped parts of Africa and generate a much higher return than cost used to help build the equipment. Furthermore, similar projects for infrastructure generally allows China to “buy” influence and loyalty from African states, which is most evident in UN votes to condemn China on its ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs. Only 4 African states in the 90s had been behind China after the UN pushed to condemn them, however, in 2022 a plurality of them have now voted against condemning China for its treatment of the Uyghurs. This shows that China, whether intentionally (likely) or unintentionally, is influencing politics in Africa.
Connection to Class: China’s increasing focus on Africa is a subset of China’s “diamond necklace” strategy. China in the past has built ports in Eastern coastal African countries to streamline its trade routes and build relationships with African states, with China seeking to establish economic and eventually militaristic dominance beyond the South China Sea. Expanding its influence into Africa allows China to strengthen its position on states directly utilized by China in its necklace strategy and gives China an opportunity to expand its economic dominance over Africa’s natural resources and global trade as a whole.