How China insinuates itself into the Horn of Africa
China will increase its projection of economic power in the Horn of Africa and East Africa by organizing a peace conference this year that will be hosted by both Kenya and Ethiopia, the two largest economic powers in the region. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
Chinese penetration into Africa does not know halt or respite. What exactly are we alluding to? We are hinting that China will increase its projection of economic power in the Horn of Africa and East Africa by organizing a peace conference this year that will be hosted by both Kenya and Ethiopia, the two major economic powers in the region.
But let's not forget that these two nations owe several billion dollars to China either. The task of increasing Chinese penetration of the Horn of Africa will be entrusted to the special envoy, the Chinese diplomat Xue Bing. The narrative that the special envoy is constructing to legitimize Chinese penetration into the Horn of Africa is the traditional one: on the one hand, respecting the national sovereignty of individual countries and, on the other hand, underlining the enormous damage caused by foreign colonial interventions.
In this regard, the special envoy wanted to specify that China – unlike Western countries – will not send weapons to the region's fighters but engineers and scientists.
What is the real reason for the importance that China attaches to this part of Africa? Of course, Chinese interest is China's first overseas naval infrastructure for Djibouti; the other reason is related to the significant investments that China has made in Ethiopia. Not to mention those made in Somalia and those in the oil sector made in South Sudan. In short, interests that certainly cannot be defined as altruistic.
The visit that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made to Eritrea in January must be read precisely in the context of open opposition to the West. It is in fact a response to US sanctions against the current government of President Issayas Afewerki. In fact, China intends to support the development of Eritrea and the Red Sea also in an anti-Western and, specifically, anti-US function.
Ultimately, to give the reader a precise idea of the economic debt of developing countries towards China, the figure to be considered is around 110 billion dollars, an increase of 5 billion compared to 2019. Specifically Djibouti owes 55% of its foreign debt to Chinese loans.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/come-la-cina-si-insinua-nel-corno-dafrica/ on Tue, 19 Apr 2022 05:53:38 +0000.