Modern Colonialism- Chinese Expansion in Africa

In the current scenario, anyone can predict that China is following the similar footprints of Britishers to have its possession over the resources of the world with greater hold through vicious trade as well as through its assertive policies of ravaging economic and political stability (majorly the debt trap diplomacy and influencing political leaders by means of bribe) of smaller developing nations.

There is now hardly any country left on this globe which has not facing atrocities by either lesser or greater. Taking example of Sri Lanka, one of the neighbours of India which is highly influenced by Chinese debt trap policy which invested huge amount of money in the name of development and infrastructure projects.

With the time, Sri Lanka caught in the trap of debt which forced to repay that huge loan by giving its Hambantota port to China ,which is significantly strategic location for Chinese expansionism, on lease for a period of 99 years. Now  Sri Lanka is not the only victim of such swiftly done atrocity of China but many other nations faced it including Pakistan , Laos, Cambodia etc.

Now the focus of China has also been shifted towards the Africa and taking greater interest in future continent. Why Africa is called the continent of the future has some important reasons. Africa has considerable energy resources, including 8 % of the world’s oil reserves, 7 % of its natural gas reserves, 4 % of its coal reserves, 10 % of its hydropower potential, 17 % of its uranium reserves, 15 % of its geothermal potential, 38 % of its wind energy resources and an average of 300 days of sunshine per year which is undoubtedly high source of solar energy. Apart from these conventional and non-conventional resources African continent also has many ore resources(gold , brass, manganese phosphates ).

China is one of the biggest purchasers of African mineral resources which gets these in lower prices as compare to the imports from other nations. China is a country which can be compared with coconut not from the angle of soft-hard but double layered. It’s outer layer shows it is wearing a communist skin but from inside they are highly capitalistic in nature. They are smart in generating money by any way. Chinese observes everything and every region of the globe for looking its next prey. The prey is now African continent and in the skin of wolf this fox faced country slowly stepping towards the African nations which could be more strategically ,militarily and economically important for it.

Out of 54 African countries, 50 countries have taken loan from Chinese entities worth USD 153 billion from 2009 to 2019. In 2020, the Covid-19 crisis came into effect which cut down all the economic activities of every nation on the globe. African nations are counted in smaller developing countries and they too faced greater economic crisis with the emergence of Covid-19 and China started intervening in the matters following its policy of expansionism. African nations are being forced to hand over the national assets to China due to some agreements they signed with this Asian giant years back and ignored crucial clauses to show the gesture of goodwill to the Asian giant.

Uganda is the most recent African example of Beijing’s debt trap diplomacy. Uganda is now preparing to hand over its only Airport named Entebbe international Airport to the Chinese companies because it is unable to repay the USD 207 million loan to the Communist regime which was signed between the two nation in 2015. Uganda had removed the international immunity clause from the agreement at the time of the deal in order to show a gesture of goodwill which has now become a major mistake of Uganda which it compensating by losing its only airport in the near future.

But Uganda is not the only nation that is facing this issue. There are many others too. During the past five years, around 66 per cent of the loan amount has been given for transportation and energy sectors. Since 2010, the Chinese financial institutions have funded an average of 70 projects every year in Africa with an average value of USD180 million and among them the resource guarantee infrastructure financing has been focused on minerals and hydrocarbon rich African states including Zambia (copper), Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Algeria, Mozambique, Egypt, Sudan (Oil & Gas) South Africa and Tanzania (Gold). China presently is a leading bilateral lender in 32 African countries and the top lender to the continent as a whole. The list includes Angola (USD 21.5 billion), Ethiopia (USD 13.7 billion), Kenya (USD 9.8 billion), Republic of Congo (USD 7.42 billion), Zambia (USD 6.38 billion) and Cameroon (USD 5.57 billion).

The debts have been energizing a repayment crisis. China owns around 72 per cent of Kenya’s external debt which stands at USD 50 billion. Over the next few years, Kenya is expected to pay $ 60 billion to the China Exim Bank alone. Mombasa port can be lost if Kenya defaults on loan re-payment which was informed by auditor general of Kenya itself. It is now a crucial time for not only these nations but also developed and allied nations to look into this matter more seriously and counter Chinese expansions and debt trap diplomacy to save such countries from the debt atrocities of China because if steps have not been taken it is going to affect the developed countries too.