China is making a major push for influence in Africa, through trade and investment and its first overseas military base. India is also interested in the African market, but is not prepared to extend itself as far as China is
China is making a major push for influence in Africa, through trade and investment and its first overseas military base. India is also interested in the African market, but is not prepared to extend itself as far as China is and has no military ambitions there.
Both developments bear watching by the United States and Europe.
At a trade summit last Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion not only in investment, but also in health, agriculture and infrastructure aid. His offer will be welcome to African nations, particularly those that were riding high on their oil wealth before world prices dropped.
China is capable of providing African markets with inexpensive, necessary consumer items in return for commodities such as copper and iron ore. At the same time, its rollout of aid is not new. In the 1970s, for instance, it built the Tanzam railroad, from the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean to Zambia’s copper belt. Africa’s consumer market is a billion people and is relatively unexploited among world markets.
The Asian giant also announced its intention to establish a military base in Djibouti, a former French colony in northeast Africa along the Red Sea. It will be Beijing’s first overseas base, perched on the edge of the Middle East. It will join America’s only base in Africa, also in Djibouti, where thousands of U.S. troops, fighter-bombers and a drone operation are located. France and Japan also have bases there.
The United States has never shown itself capable of competing well for a significant economic role in Africa. It always lagged behind former colonial powers France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy and Belgium. This inability has been a policy shortfall for America.
Now, the Chinese are gaining influence on the continent. Regardless of whether an aggressive India becomes a competitor, too, the Americans and the Europeans must keep close tabs on the situation.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
