[Epoch Times, January 10, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Liang Yao interviewed and reported) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi started a four-day trip to three countries in East Africa on January 4. This is the first visit to Africa by a Chinese foreign minister for the 32nd consecutive year. Experts have analyzed that the CCP’s “One Belt, One Road” diplomatic strategy is difficult to maintain. The U.S. policy should directly attack the CCP and let African people understand the essence of the CCP.
It is difficult for the CCP to maintain the “One Belt, One Road” foreign policy
This year is the first visit to Africa by the Chinese foreign minister since 1991 for the 32nd consecutive year. It is also Wang Yi’s second visit to Africa in the past two months. At the end of November, he went to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, a West African country, to attend China The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Cooperation Forum.
The three destinations he visited for the first time this year were Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros.
Milton Ezrati, chief economist at New York-based communications firm Vested, said in an interview with The Epoch Times that Wang Yi’s recent trip may be related to the inability of these three countries and other African countries to fulfill their participation in China. related to the financial obligations undertaken by the Belt and Road project. “China will definitely not let these Africans default or walk away, and some steps will be taken to remedy it.”
Dr. Xie Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina in the United States, said that the Belt and Road Initiative has burdened many African countries with heavy debts. At present, the depletion of foreign exchange and the awakening of many countries have made it difficult for the CCP to maintain the “Belt and Road” foreign policy.
He found that the “One Belt, One Road” project has caused Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia to fall into the predicament of high foreign debt. African countries take it seriously and keep it in mind.
More and more African countries are beginning to realize that behind the CCP’s aid, he said, there are hidden features of neo-colonialism, coupled with the CCP’s ambition to use business to suppress government and encroach on sovereignty, and worry about the possibility of becoming a colony on the CCP’s resources. , so that African governments began to draw a line with the CCP.
Raw materials and international votes are the main reasons for the CCP to win over African countries
In addition, experts believe that Africa’s natural resources and cheap labor are one of the main reasons for the CCP to win over African countries. However, Western countries such as the United States cannot compete fairly with the CCP under equal environment, human rights and labor conditions.
Anders Corr, president of Corr Analytics Inc., said in an interview with The Epoch Times that the CCP covets Africa because “the African continent is rich in natural resources and cheap labor. ) there is a huge market that needs this export, including infrastructure and construction.”
In addition, Cole said, 54 countries in Africa provide Beijing with a large voting bloc at the United Nations, through loans, grants, and even bribes to African heads of state, so that the CCP can easily gain benefits.
Economics professor and China economic analyst Dr. Antonio Graceffo shares a similar view, arguing that the main drivers of Beijing’s engagement with Africa are raw materials, minerals and metals.
In addition, he said, “includes job creation, increased production capacity, loans and financing, and the creation of export markets for Chinese products. Another is building political alliances and voting at the United Nations.”
CCP buys and bribes African leaders to run “new colonies”
Dr. Xie Tian said that many of these African countries are dictatorial and centralized countries, and many are dependent on the CCP, where the CCP not only invests in technology and dumps technology equipment such as Huawei 5G, but also gymnasiums, hospitals and other building facilities. The CCP has massively bought and bribed the leaders of these African countries for the purpose of infiltration.
“The CCP uses these African countries to suppress human rights to gain international support, because the United Nations and other international organizations are one country, one vote, regardless of whether these countries are democratic countries or not.” “The CCP influences as a leader of a ‘third world country’. internationality.”
Xie Tian believes that Wang Yi’s first visit to African countries is actually the CCP’s urgent need to bring Africa’s resources into its palm to meet domestic needs, such as the mineral resources needed for electric vehicles and chip manufacturing.
He said the CCP had been operating in Africa for a long time as a “neo-colonialist”.
He found that for Africans, there was a bit of “disillusionment” with Beijing, and everyone realized that spending money was not enough to stimulate economic development. In the eyes of African countries, the CCP is not assisting them at all, but a new colonial empire after the retreat of British and French colonial powers.
“As a neo-colonialist, the CCP is a hundred times worse than the old colonialists, because it lacks the legal system, morality, human rights and ethics. It just seizes resources and destroys the environment…”
The CCP used bad tactics to colonize Africa
Two months before Wang Yi’s visit to Africa, US Secretary of State Blinken also went to Africa. “The United States firmly believes that it is time to stop treating Africa as a geopolitical subject and start seeing it as a major geopolitical player now,” Blinken said during his visit to Africa.
Some media reports said Blinken’s visit was in part to increase the importance of the United States in Africa as it competes with China. Africa is becoming a new battleground for the US-China rivalry.
On the issue of U.S.-China competition, Dr. Graysford believes that, as an authoritarian state, Beijing can move private and public companies around the world like chess pieces. But the U.S. needs to invest through loans and construction investments from USAID and other organizations, and the process is not easy.
“The billions of dollars that China (CCP) provides to African countries are actually investments and loans, not gifts. The U.S. often gives gifts, grants, albeit on a much smaller scale. When the CCP said it would invest billions, the government only provided a small portion of it, and most of it came from private and public companies. And the U.S. has no real state-owned enterprises and cannot order private companies to invest in Africa. So , the United States needs to find some way to increase our investment and engagement in Africa.”
Dr. Xie Tian believes that the CCP corrupts and bribes the leaders of African countries, including allowing the children of powerful African countries to study in China for free; development in Africa does not follow international standards such as environmental protection, labor, and human rights. These practices have also created many conflicts in Africa. And these are things that the United States will not do. If American companies want to enter Africa, human rights organizations and environmental protection organizations will carry out strict supervision.
The U.S. needs to directly target the CCP and wake up the African people
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced on January 6, local time, the appointment of David Satterfield as the U.S. special envoy to the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is located in northeastern Africa, a peninsula in East Africa, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, extending eastward for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea. It is the easternmost region of the African continent, and Cape Hafung, the easternmost point of the African continent, is also located in this region. The Horn of Africa includes countries such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia.
Dr. Xie Tian said that in terms of African policy, the United States will not be able to win the “competition” by adopting a similar approach to that of the CCP (investment, overseas visits, sending representatives, etc.). “The best way is to directly attack the CCP. And let the African people wake up and recognize the essence of the CCP’s ‘neocolonialism’.”
Cole also said that the current U.S. policy is unlikely to work, “unless our legitimate democratic government recognizes that the CCP is illegal and is closer to a mafia or terrorist organization imposed on the Chinese people.”
Responsible editor: Sun Yun#
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