cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41400491
More rail infrastructure in Africa is great news!
For everyone commenting about debt traps, from an African perspective both Western debt and Chinese debt (or any type of debt) favor the creditors but Chinese loans are relatively advantages because
(1) they tend to focus on infrastructure that the respective countries can use to their advantage as opposed to the WB or IMF loans which promote neoliberalism that has never worked in Africa (or really any other place) and push Africa in a position to only be able to provide raw materials and never be able to switch to value added products.
(2) They push other richer countries interested in African to invest more if they want to compete with China. The US for example has made plans to invest in African infrastructure to compete with China:
(3) If the debtor countries default on the loan or want to renegotiate, China (at least so far) doesn’t use its intelligence agencies and military agencies to destabilize your country or force regime change
They’re not going to like it when China tells them it’s payback time.
West: exploits countries, gives nothing back
China: exploits countries, gives public transport and jobs at high price
Western citizens: Hah! Look at those dumb countries!
Why don’t you look into how much of Ethiopia’s GDP goes to paying back China.
Why don’t you look into how much of Africa’s resources exit the continent for Western use at a fraction of the actual price?
Who do you think put African countries in the precarious positions they are in where they feel nearly obliged to look at seemingly better deals?
Tanzania and Zambia about to join the “going to find out about Chinese colonialism the hard way” club. Corruption is cancer to any society.
Earlier this year, the World Bank approved US$270 million in financing to help improve connectivity between neighbours Tanzania and Zambia and boost regional trade.
I’d love for the west to say “fuck it let China foot the bill for everything going forward” and pull out leaving the 3rd world to be used and abused by them.
Chinese colonialism doesn’t get the press it deserves because no one cares about brown people being the victims. And China has zero fucks about human rights at home.
