”7 Cunning Ways China Is Colonizing Africa”

China is currently the world’s second most populous nation with 1.42 billion people. That is marginally surpassed by India which in 2021 came from behind to overtake China whose growth rate had slumped after tight birth controls.  Having too many people on its territory is a bother to the government which has now adopted the strategy of spilling excess population to other parts of the world.

An African expert who outlined the minimum of seven ”clever” steps taken by China to gain from Africa, and to hold an advantage over Africa, is situated in the context of China’s population overflow as against the weather, barren, and vast uninhabited lands of Africa. This the Chinese find favorable for migration for a permanent stay in Africa.

The reflections introduce China as a country that is not attempting any frontal means to colonize Africa. Colonialism is explained to be a contractual agreement in the form of a treatise that grants the colonizer superior powers to call the shots from external sources. They first go to the objects of interest to set up structures that serve the interests of the master-servant relationship, then they go back to pull the strings from their base.

1. China is ”buying over Africa” says the analyst who stressed that that approach is an advanced dimension of colonialism, which has seen the Chinese leave their own country en masse to dwell in Africa, unlike western colonizers who signed agreements, put African puppets in place on their behalf, and then control the installed system from overseas. In Buying out Africa, the Chinese have placed their products in all alternative products or outlets such that African buyers only see China and nothing else. This way China wins the market.
2.  Chinese in Africa are interested in staying or getting permanent footholds in Africa so they buy lands and own them to actualize that dream. No wonder there are Chinese villages and Chinatowns all over Africa. In some jurisdictions, police stations have been set up solely for the protection of Chinese nationals in foreign lands.  In contrast, European colonizers only sojourned the African continent without seeking to own lands. They only rented places for their operations.
3. The infiltration of Africa by China is not simply colonialists. China entered Africa as a settler. It is alleged that there are four Chinese Army Generals inside or aligned with Zambia. The Chinese generals are physically in Zambia to protect Chinese businesses. It is alleged that a city’s mayor in Zambia criticized a Chinese national over a ”misbehavior”. When the then President of Zambia, Edgar Lungu heard about the conflict between the individuals, he asked the Zambian mayor to apologize to the Chinese.
4. China is not dealing with raw materials as Europeans do with regard to Africa. China has crept into the meager jobs the common man in Africa does, depriving indigenes and imposing further challenges on host governments that are trying to solve related problems. They do retail trading, artisanship, fishing, food vending, operate restaurants, operate small-scale mines, and are into horticultural activities among other things.
5. As the Chinese explore the interiors of African countries and particularize on items, they are alleged to be introducing genetically-programmed seeds into local crops. A careful examination of where they have attended has shown crops modified and upon consumption, people act the way the Chinese want. The Chinese roam the hinterlands of other countries to gather intelligence for their homelands. Now China cultivates cocoa, a crop that is alien to their environment, clearly an uptake from West Africa.
6. Chinese debt strategy is aimed at establishing Chinese dominion over Africa. When you owe somebody, you are enslaved to the person. A debt owed to China by Djibouti allowed China control over a port in the Eastern African country. In Ghana, the Chinese are scattered on the map, and especially their activities in mining have raised concerns. In some cases, they are fingered for the use of firearms which they employ to ward off indigenes and even official security.
7. Some of the agreements between China and Africa, especially those undertaken in China are allegedly written in Mandarin, the language of the Chinese. Some clauses in deals are not well understood by Africans before they commit themselves. It is reported that a successor president in Tanzania had to revise his notes and review an agreement over this problem.

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