Well I mean… I sure hope not. I personally don’t see any reason to think it’s anything other than China trying to gain support from nations that are on the fence or don’t care about them, which to be clear is not a bad thing. They’re free to pursue any relations they desire, and the other nations are free to do the same. Hopefully the politicians involved are truly working for the betterment of both countries.
That said, the person making the shady deal would clearly say “it’s not a shady deal”, and the person duped by aforementioned shady deal would obviously not want to admit being duped by said shady deal. So everyone involved has every reason to say this anyway.
In other words: a lot of words to ultimately say nothing. Much like this comment.
“Heh, nice try President of South Africa, but I think I know a little something about African-Chinese diplomacy from all the feddit articles whose headline and preview paragraph I’ve read.”
Hmmm, it might not be, but it’s still within the interests of the chinese state. Let’s say the CCP actually wanted Africa to succeed. They may see the ascendance of Africa into something close to first world conditions as beneficial to them, as now they would have this history of benevolence and investments with a market away from the US, thus slowly chipping away at their reliance to the west.
I mean, it would be nice to see a comparison between a Chinese loan and a loan by the IMF. Maybe the sting still has to come because they haven’t been doing it for as long, but there’s got to be a good reason those countries go with China instead of the IMF.
To me it seems like IMF loans involve privatising revenue generating assets, lowering taxes on the wealthy and austerity on the masses. The biggest criticism of the Chinese way of financing is that if you default on the loan you used to build a port/highway/railway line, they keep that specific asset. And I guess instead of using local labour they use Chinese workers.
There’s definitely things to criticise there, but I know which option I’d pick if I needed a port in my country.
but it’s still within the interests of the chinese state
Obviously lmao. Why the hell would a country do something for no reason
The more Africa develops with Chinese cooperation, the more China gets access to wealthier markets to sell stuff to that they have good relations with.
It is in China’s self-interest for the era of imperialism, complete with its colonialism and neocolonialism, to come to an end. It turns out, that’s also in the self-interest of literally everyone, even the imperialists. So the fact that this is in the interests of China is sort of a moot point.
That’s like saying a doctor is only curing people of life threatening diseases so she can eat a decent meal and sleep in a comfortable bed. Uh, sure… I think we can all agree that whoever helps out should get a good life. What’s the point of saying what you’re saying, exactly?