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What does China want from Africa?

calm

Active Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?
 

Shiranui117

Pronounced Shee-ra-noo-ee
Premium Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?
China gets to corner the market on the extremely valuable ores, minerals and metals that are present in Africa. China is a country of over a billion people, and the more resources they can get to continue their technological development to hopefully replace the US as the global superpower, the better.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?

China wants to be an international world power, and of course access to African resources.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?
I think that China is doing something akin to missionary work, spreading world culture and going for a world peace in the long term. Its what you might call an ethical investment and financial. Its a tiny bit religious in nature. Conceptually China believes in one language and unity as much as possible, and so China both adopts culture and spreads culture. Its adopts things from America and other places, and it spreads culture too aiming for as much continuity as human nature allows. Its idea of unity is parallel in some ways to Catholicism, and I think its going for a long term strategy of pax-China using soft power. I think it did pick up some ideas about this from American soft power and is just trying to maximize the potential of soft power. The Chinese government also believes in profit and in investing in economies, trade and things like that. Its shopping for a good deal, trying to avoid creating enemies.

People from Africa have told me that the US for decades made the mistake of merely feeding people rather than investing in infrastructure in Africa. We've sent money and food that has sometimes been wasted by governments, and we've sent Christian missionaries and medical assistance plus some educational assistance. Africans have not been silent about the lack of infrastructure investment, but the US has been slow to change. The US has begun to change its policies; but I don't think the US public stays very aware if this sort of thing or pays a lot of attention to the opinions of people living so far away. We could do better.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?


Countries invest in other countries for a share of the bounty and/or to gain allies.

America has upped its investment in africa by 11% (to $46bn) last year.

China is doing nothing out of the ordinary in general terms although it is extraordinary for China whos previously policy was invasion.
 

leov

Well-Known Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?
China is creating markets for their goods, after creating dependence on their goods, they do not plan to use petro- dollar to trade, they will own Africa economically and get all they need to sustain China in exchange for their products.
 

Alea iacta est

Pretend that I wrote something cool.
It's more neo-colonialism than just investing for trading. It's more clear when so many Chinese move to Africa. I have heard that the Chinese companies in Africa don't even want to hire Africans for the jobs there so they rather import laborers from China instead. I don't know if it's true or not. I haven't really looked into it more yet.
 

Epic Beard Man

Bearded Philosopher
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?

Colonize it......The Chinese government is scandalous to the core.
 

Epic Beard Man

Bearded Philosopher
Countries invest in other countries for a share of the bounty and/or to gain allies.

America has upped its investment in africa by 11% (to $46bn) last year.

China is doing nothing out of the ordinary in general terms although it is extraordinary for China whos previously policy was invasion.

This is neo-colonialism to its core....It's giving out loans they know countries wont be able to pay back in exchange for them to own property in Africa. This is colonialism all the way. Soon the whole damn continent is going to be speaking Mandarin or Cantonese.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
China is expansionist and neo-colonial. They're using money to spread their influence and get other nations to toe their line in world politics and, of course, not support those in China who are for freedom of speech, religion etc.
 

Notthedarkweb

Indian phil, German idealism, Rawls
This is a fairly complex question, that needs a little history lesson.

Now, in the middle to late 19th century, and the first decade of the 20th century, China was subjected to multiple colonial treaties and concessions that led to the nation essentially being turned into a corporate entity for the purpose of exploitation by European (and Japanese) colonial enterprises. Now, the idea that the Chinese Manchu emperor (who was not a member of the majority "Han" ethnic group, whatever that means considering the various subgroups that consist it) had sold them out to the colonists was widespread, and all of this culminated in the 1912 Revolution (with a lot in between!)

What ensued was a civil war, a brutal Japanese occupation and the total destruction of the nation. Now comes in someone called Mao Zedong. Maoism has a major theoretical focus on the third world, and this theoretical focus on combining proletarian and peasant classes into one national whole was used as not only an organizing principle in the broken and divided post-civil war China, but also as a powerful theoretical idea against the "imperialist bourgeoisie" i.e all those who had thrust the unequal treaties on it. Hence, in this project of "socialist anti-bourgeois" national regeneration, the first step was throwing off the unequal treaties and the demolition of the Chinese state as a result of colonial meddling. This led to China's occupation of Tibet, intervention in the Korean war and so forth. Now, over here we see a strand of intervention developing.

Fast forward to 2019. Since the 21st century, the Maoist national-revolutionary attitude to Chinese nationalism had been stripped off its...socialist elements and turned into nationalism proper. The Chinese Communist Party essentially pushes a narrative that due to atrocities and offences committed against China in the past, it itself deserves redress. They see neo-colonialism through economic means as one of the major ways by which to do so. It is a social Darwinist view, that to survive in this exploitative world and prove China on the world stage, and restore Chinese pride, it has to essentially "Europeanize" its diplomacy with the intention of challenging American hegemony. If that explains it!
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
This is neo-colonialism to its core....It's giving out loans they know countries wont be able to pay back in exchange for them to own property in Africa. This is colonialism all the way. Soon the whole damn continent is going to be speaking Mandarin or Cantonese.

And American
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
It's more neo-colonialism than just investing for trading. It's more clear when so many Chinese move to Africa. I have heard that the Chinese companies in Africa don't even want to hire Africans for the jobs there so they rather import laborers from China instead. I don't know if it's true or not. I haven't really looked into it more yet.
Probably true. China has been practicing imperialism by immigration and economic dominance in many parts of the world for a long time now.
 

amorphous_constellation

Well-Known Member
It is a social Darwinist view, that to survive in this exploitative world and prove China on the world stage, and restore Chinese pride, it has to essentially "Europeanize" its diplomacy with the intention of challenging American hegemony. If that explains it!

So in other words, become more colonial as europeans historically were?
 

74x12

Well-Known Member
For years, China has invested billions in Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ethiopia. And I ask myself why? As I have read, this is really a win-win for both sides. China invests in development and therefore they get part of Africa's natural resources for it. But is that really the only reason?
What I have also noticed in recent years is that 1 million Chinese have emigrated to Africa and want to stay and live there. Why all this?
Simple. It's the modern version of colonization.
 
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