China Just Changed the Entire Future of Africa with THIS One Move!
China is changing the future of Africa as it just pledged an incredible $50 Billion dollars to developing the continent over the next 3 years. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following China’s activities in Africa over the past few years. Chinese enterprises have created an incredible 1.1 million jobs in Africa the past three years while investing in agriculture, manufacturing, and trade logistics.
Africa is now China's second-largest overseas contracting market and over the past decade, Chinese companies have signed contracts in Africa worth over $700 billion dollars.
Simply put the future of Africa is China and China’s own future is now deeply intertwined with Africa.
But earlier this week, China announced a new policy that will be a game changer for 33 of the least developed African countries, and to be honest, this is what China does better than any country in the world, providing clear tangible benefits from cooperation. Moving forward, these 33 nations will enjoy a new “zero-tariff treatment" which basically means they will have zero tariffs on all products or goods exported to China, giving these smaller developing nations direct access to the most valuable consumer market in the world.
The announcement came at this year’s Forum on China Africa Cooperation, where leaders from all 53 African nations journeyed to Beijing to cement the cooperation between Africa and China. Just listen to the powerful opening statement China gave at this year’s forum:
“African countries are experiencing a new awakening, realizing that externally imposed models have not brought stability and prosperity. African nations need to explore development paths that suit their own national conditions and firmly grasp their future and destiny in their own hands.”
There is one main reason why China is winning in Africa. China respects the individual needs of all 53 African nations and customizes a unique offering for each country focused on win-win solutions. Ironically, this is a stark contrast to how the United States has historically treated Africa.
The United States has always looked at Africa as a problem to be solved, while China looks at Africa as a continent of opportunity. The myth that modernization equals Westernization has been debunked and this commitment by China to work with African countries as genuine partners, and not as problems to be dealt with, is a breath of fresh air.
When the United States hosted the similar US Africa Leaders Summit in 2022, African leaders were met with frustration, disappointment, and distrust and told reporters they heard many big American promises, starting with President Barack Obama in 2014, but almost nothing has come to pass.
Of course it doesn’t help that the US hosted this summit while it was actively sanctioning several African nations, harming their development and interfering with their sovereignty.
It’s been nearly two years since the US Africa summit, and it’s no surprise what the conference has yielded for Africa. More lectures, more speeches, and almost zero tangible benefits to the development of the continent.
The reason for this is simple. The US government was only interested in hosting its Africa summit to counter the rise of China. US politicians don’t genuinely care about partnering with Africa, they simply will do anything they can to sabotage China’s rise. The audacity of America's actions is perfectly summed up in this clip:
Ironically, this lecture was given by presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, showing there will most certainly be no significant change on the US policy towards Africa if she wins this November. But China’s collaborative approach fosters genuine cooperation, leading to "win-win" agreements that benefit both nations.
By addressing each country's priorities and challenges, China helps facilitate development while strengthening bilateral ties, ensuring that both parties achieve mutual growth and prosperity. It’s as simple as that. No military bases involved, no lecturing, and no interference with sovereignty.
In fact, the respect from China is reflected down to the scheduling of the forum. Every three years the Forum on China Africa Cooperation rotates between Beijing and an African city. China gives tremendous “face” to these smaller developing nations by personally visiting the continent to focus on economic cooperation, diplomacy, peace, and cultural exchange.
Alternating between Africa and China shows the level operating field and respect between the two regions. In contrast, the U.S. does not have a recurring forum, but rather hosts summits when their interests in Africa are being threatened, and only in Washington, D.C.
This week’s African summit in Beijing has now set the stage for China’s massive expansion in Africa, which honestly has been exploding in growth the past few years. China-Africa trade reached a record high of 282 billion dollars in 2023, and China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years.
But this new $50 billion dollar investment over the next 3 years into Africa is forecasted to create an additional 1 million jobs in Africa working on infrastructure projects, green energy, and trade expansion in countries across the continent.
Part of Beijing’s revised Belt and Road Initiative is to focus on what the Chinese governments labels “small and beautiful” projects. Kenya’s president went on to state:
“Kenya and China have excellent and cordial diplomatic relations. These ties have been mutually beneficial to our two countries, phenomenally transforming Kenya’s railway, road, and port infrastructure, and deepening people-to-people exchanges.”
In East Africa, China, Tanzania, and Zambia have signed an agreement to rehabilitate a decades-old railway, aiming to enhance rail-sea transportation. In addition, China has also pledged to support industrial upgrades in Zimbabwe and develop its mineral processing capabilities, as the country is a key producer of lithium, an essential material for electric vehicles.
In a clear jab to U.S. African policy, the two leaders released a joint statement stating that human rights issues, including the right to development are:
“the common cause of all mankind, and they oppose the politicization of human rights issues and interference in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights.”
This statement encapsulates Africa’s movement towards Chinese policies over America’s. China is not telling these leaders how to run their countries or interfering with local politics. China is once again solely focused on trade and development and working towards mutual cooperation.
In addition to the billions of dollars in investment pledged to Africa in the next three years, Xi took another massive step by ending all tariffs for 33 African countries. Once again this is a stark contrast to US foreign policy which has significantly increased its use of tariffs in recent years.
In fact, Joe Biden became the first President to pass over 6,000 new sanctions in a two year span, as the US has tried to sanction China’s access to the world’s most advanced microchips. But here is the cold hard truth about US sanctions. They’ve completely backfired. Sanctions have only forced China to innovate and become stronger and now some of America’s most important tech companies, most notably Intel, are suffering. Intel is the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 this year as the company has been cut off from its most source of profit and that of course is the Chinese market.
But here is where things get very interesting as China is now importing some of its most valuable products into Africa. In 2023, China's exports of new energy vehicles and lithium batteries grew by 291% and 109% respectively. China is the world leader in these two sectors and of course relies on the resources and minerals of African mines to dominate these two industries. While China has been honest about its desire for Africa’s resources from the start.
The difference from the west is the win-win cooperation for mutual development instead of a one sided approach. I know it might be hard for many Westerners to believe in a country acting in motivation outside of material gain, but there is a historic and ideological precedent in China to support this. Many schools, hospitals, and infrastructure projects in Africa have been gifted by China purely by goodwill. Keep in mind only 50 years ago China was one of the poorest countries on Earth. Since then, they have raised nearly a billion people out of poverty. This transition is within living memory of a majority of Chinese people and has translated into their foreign policy and belief that it is their duty to share that growth with the developing world.
Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, describes this unique relationship best. He argues that China is the largest developing country, and Africa is the continent with the most developing countries. Cooperation between the two sides forms the basis of Global South development. The China Africa cooperation offers more voices to safeguard interests, strive for more development opportunities, and pool more strengths to promote fairness in global governance.
For a full video presentation on today’s report click down below to watch the corresponding YouTube video.
Thank you all for your support!
Cyrus
It's a lot more productive to work with China.
Cyrus, China can do this because the United States and NATO allies are having to foot the bill to fight China's buddy Russia in Ukraine. You do realize that as of 2024, the total aid from the U.S. to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in 2022 has reached approximately $175 billion. This includes military, economic, and humanitarian assistance. How much has China given to stop the aggression by Russia? Zip, nothing. Instead, China makes deals, and while innocents are being slaughtered, people like you write blog articles on how great they are. How can you even look in the mirror?