why is the west "angry" about china-africa cooperation? | reference exclusive
2024-09-10
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reference news reported on september 8what do you think of the future of africa as the world's technological center and a driving force for global economic growth? it is already happening, albeit slowly. and today, the topic is once again being discussed.
the discussion came at a time when the forum on china-africa cooperation (focac) summit was held in beijing from september 4 to 6. from the documents released at the summit, we can see the direction of development for the entire world, not just africa.
in short, the long first phase of china-africa cooperation has ended. a new phase has begun, with industrialization, modernization and talent cultivation as its key words. prior to this, the focus was on building infrastructure for future development.
on the issue of china-africa cooperation, bloomberg news and other media outlets still do their best to slander and voice the west’s incompetent fury. for example, they accuse china of providing funds to africans through “opaque plans” and setting up “debt traps.”
why are they angry? because they were lax in the past and gave up on africa, and now they feel the pain. here's what happened: in the early 1990s, africa was no longer a field of competition between the soviet union and the united states, and the west's attitude towards africa became significantly colder. at the g8 meeting at that time, at most there was a general discussion about whether to give africa some "handouts."
the british magazine the economist published a cover article titled "a continent without hope" in 2000. but it was also in that year that the forum on china-africa cooperation was established, and the african continent began a new life.
that cooperation really starts with infrastructure. china discovered a key problem in africa early on: even though there are several modern roads there, they don’t connect the continent’s countries. they stretch outward to ports where the colonizers want to export or import anything.
at present, china has participated in the construction and renovation of more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads, nearly 1,000 bridges, nearly 100 ports and 66,000 kilometers of power transmission and transformation lines in africa. china will continue to participate in new construction projects.
connecting the entire african continent with metal and asphalt is so spectacular that many people overlook other seemingly insignificant achievements. there are many such achievements, and they are growing. take one (chinese) investment project as an example: a glass factory in tanzania created 1,012 jobs and created 3,857 jobs for partner companies.
to reiterate: the main feature of china-africa cooperation today is the focus on modernization and cutting-edge technology - don't forget who is the technological leader in today's world.
the foundations have been laid, and a new phase of development lies ahead. it will be a difficult process, no doubt. but in the end, there will emerge some kind of new african economy, with growth points in agriculture and various high-tech development areas.
this article was published on the russian news agency website on september 6, with the original title "the west missed the african miracle", and the author is russian political observer dmitry kosyrev. (translated by zhu lifeng)
