The difference between Chinese and Western approaches to Africa is that China thinks in terms of “development” and prosperity for the people through whose land infrastructure is built. The Western approach, is to get to the quickest way from the mine to the port, affecting nothing along the route. China does get raw materials from Africa too. But it provides economic and social benefits at the same time. This is the difference between the development corridor / belt of the New Silk Road and the old colonial trade routes of extraction.
(Courtesy of CGTN): Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday that China is willing to work with Zambia and Tanzania to advance the development of a prosperity belt along the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, and jointly foster a new hub of economic growth. He made the remarks in Zambia’s capital of Lusaka while attending the ground-breaking ceremony of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway revitalization project with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbi on November 20.
The railway line linking Zambia and Tanzania is set for a massive 1.4 billion dollars transformation. The TAZARA railway line upgrade -under a concession agreement with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation-will modernize the regional transport corridor, unlock new trade opportunities, and quadruple the amount of cargo moved.
BRIX comment: In contrast, the United States and the European Union signed an MoU with the three African countries Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia to upgrade the Benguela Corridor, by adding a short link (red dotted line below) from the Angola-DRC border to Zambia’s “copper belt”. The declared intention of this project is to extract and transfer wealth from the DRC and Zambia to the Lobito port on the Atlantic coast of Angola. But even this smaller section has not materialize.
The irony is that the railway that already exists from Angolan Lobito to Luau on the border with the DRC, was built by the Chinese company China Railway Constrcution Company (completed in 2015). It is called Benguela Railway. But the Chinese company was only an engineering contractor. It was run by the Angolan national railway company until an open bidding process gave a 30-year concession for the operation of it in 2023 to a consortium of Trafigura (Singapore-based), Mota-Engil (Portugese), and Vecturis (Belgian) . The U.S. and EU plans are just hot political air. Second, China is not the largest copper minor in the region. It is British companies (or Five-Eyes companies). In Zambia, as we reported before, 7 British companies and only one Chinese company are active in mining in Zambia. The British Empire is well and alive. Most raw materials in Africa are controlled by companies listed in the City of London. However, nations are no longer tolerating this process of neocolonial extraction policy. This is where China’s and the BRI’s role come in, not as a new looter of raw materials from Africa but as a force for industrialization and modernization. Chinese companies will help those nations process the copper and sell it at higher value rather than as raw materials.
The outspoken Chinese policy in Africa is the integration of the continents infrastructure networks, industrialization, and modernization. This is not a geopolitical tactic but a real implementation of win-win philosophy. To prosper thy neighbours is more beneficial than beggaring them.
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