Originally published at: 简述帝国主义中国对非洲的经济、军事和文化侵略 – 曙光
A Brief Overview of Imperialist China's Economic, Military, and Cultural Invasion of Africa
Editorial Department of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Proletariat
Preface
Why do we need to understand China's external colonial invasions?
U.S. imperialists and revisionists are vying for world dominance, extending their black hands into Africa
Our era is the era of imperialism. Today, the parasitic development of capitalism has reached an unprecedented level and has become a major characteristic of imperialism. This means that imperialism is increasingly dependent on colonies economically; through the export of goods and capital to colonies, it gains enormous profits and interests, becoming a parasitic rentier state. To compete for raw material sources, markets for goods, and investment sites, various imperialist countries have engaged in fierce struggles. As China transitioned into an imperialist country at the beginning of the 21st century, many contradictions that had temporarily eased have once again become acute, and a new world war is brewing.
Our era is also the era of proletarian revolution. After the October Socialist Revolution, the national liberation movements of colonies and semi-colonies became part of the global proletarian revolution. Because oppressed nations share a common enemy with the global proletariat—the international monopoly bourgeoisie—all their struggles inevitably weaken imperialist forces and support proletarian revolutions within imperialist countries. The monopoly bourgeoisie, to alleviate the ruling crisis caused by growing dissatisfaction among domestic laborers, has intensified plunder and invasion of colonies, attempting to divert revolutionary people's attention. At the same time, they use the huge profits from colonies to support a small aristocracy of workers, which serves as the main social base for spreading revisionism within the proletariat. Today, in China, a social imperialist country maintaining a large civil service and bureaucratic system, this is especially evident.
Therefore, to understand the three major contradictions of imperialism [1], to analyze the economic foundation and international relations of imperialism, to make correct estimates of war and revolution, and to combine the struggle against revisionism with the struggle against imperialism, we must understand China's external colonial invasions.
1. Economic Invasion
The fundamental purpose of imperialist colonial activities is to seize economic benefits. To this end, imperialist countries often first carry out economic invasion through trade and investment.
China has conducted predatory trade with Africa. To lower wages and overall production costs, China's monopolist bourgeoisie has plundered large quantities of cheap food, raw materials, and energy from Africa. Relying on market control, they continuously acquire African products at monopolistically low prices. China is the second-largest export destination for African agricultural products. In 2017, Africa exported $26.15 billion worth of agricultural products and raw materials to China, accounting for 78.1% of Africa's total exports to China [5]. From 2018 to 2022, the average growth rate of African exports to China was 11.4% [6]. China is also the main export destination for African crude oil products. In 2017, Africa exported $36.28 billion worth of oil and mineral fuels to China. In 2019, African exports of crude oil products to China accounted for 18.2% of total crude oil exports [7].
Besides, China's monopolist bourgeoisie forces colonies to develop monoculture economies, leading to extreme lack of industrial development locally. Many countries that grow large quantities of economic crops cannot achieve food self-sufficiency and must rely on imports. Among Africa's 54 countries, 42 cannot achieve food self-sufficiency, and 19 have a food self-sufficiency rate below 59% [9]. To further promote the inflow of cheap food, raw materials, and energy, the Chinese government has implemented tariff policies, exempting 97% of the products exported from the 33 least developed African countries from tariffs [10].
As exploitation of the proletariat intensifies, domestic Chinese consumers' purchasing power sharply declines, and market sales face unprecedented difficulties. To open new markets and maintain domestic prices, Chinese capital exports large quantities of goods (especially industrial products) to African colonies. Due to low productivity levels in these countries (especially in industry), and China's monopoly over production and sales, Chinese capitalists can sell goods at prices far above production costs or value, extracting superprofits through unequal exchange. China is the main importer of African industrial manufactured goods. In 2017, Africa imported $76.57 billion worth of manufactured products from China, accounting for 94.1% of China's total exports to Africa that year [11]. In 2021, African imports of manufactured goods from China accounted for 28.8% of total imports of manufactured goods [12]. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has also exported a large amount of medical supplies to Africa. From 2020 to November 2021, China exported 120 batches of "anti-epidemic supplies" and over 1.7 billion doses of vaccines [13].
Since 2000, China-Africa trade volume has skyrocketed—exceeding $10 billion in 2000, reaching $220 billion in 2014 [14], and surpassing $280 billion in 2022 [15]. Over just 22 years, it has grown more than 25 times, maintaining a growth trend (see the table below for 2021-2022 data). The proportion of China-Africa trade in total Africa foreign trade has also increased year by year, exceeding 21% in 2020 [16].
|
Unit: Billion USD |
China-Africa total trade | Exports to Africa | Imports from Africa | China's trade surplus |
|
2021 [17] |
254.2 |
1,483 (up 44%) |
1,059 (up 30%) |
424 |
|
2022 [18] |
282.0 |
1,645 |
1,175 |
470 (all data increased by about 11% in 2022) |
China has also conducted a large amount of capital export to Africa. As the domestic market shrinks and the organizational structure improves, the profit margin in the home country decreases. To pursue high profits, Chinese capitalists choose to export excess capital abroad. For them, colonies are economically backward, characterized by low land prices, low wages, and cheap raw materials; on the other hand, they are controlled by their own country, making it easy to exclude competitors, thus being ideal investment sites. In 2003, China's direct investment flow to Africa was $7 million. By 2018, this figure had increased to $5.39 billion [19], a roughly 71-fold increase in just 15 years. Currently, China has become the fourth largest source of foreign investment in Africa [20]. By the end of 2022, China's stock of direct investment in Africa exceeded $40 billion [21].
The "industrial parks" established by imperialism in Africa and the slums where workers live
Establishing industrial parks [22] is an important means for China to export productive capital. Chinese enterprises enjoy highly advantageous conditions within these parks. First, land, raw materials, energy, and labor costs are very low. For example, in the Benin Glouji Be Industrial Park, land costs less than $1 per square meter, and electricity costs only half of that outside the park [23], with the legal minimum wage only 52,000 West African francs per month (actual income for workers would be even lower) [24] (less than 600 RMB). Various parks have dedicated commercial agencies responsible for purchasing raw materials and selling products, and with convenient transportation infrastructure such as railways, roads, and ports, capital circulation is greatly shortened and capital turnover accelerated. Moreover, Chinese capitalists also use agents to secure various privileges—colonial comprador authorities have set up "one-stop" windows within parks to save time and effort for handling procedures; they exempt Chinese enterprises from various taxes, such as import-export tariffs, corporate income tax, and VAT; and some even provide raw materials free of charge. Thus, Chinese capital, on one hand, benefits from these favorable conditions and privileges, and on the other hand, by leveraging much higher labor productivity than local enterprises, severely squeezes out African national capital, consolidating its monopoly position in production.
Another important means for China to export productive capital is investing in infrastructure (including railways, roads, bridges, ports, water conservancy, cables, etc.). By the end of 2020, the construction sector accounted for the largest share of China's investments in Africa, reaching $15.15 billion, accounting for 34.9% [25]. China has also become the largest contractor for infrastructure projects in Africa. In 2020, Chinese enterprises carried out 31.4% of engineering projects in Africa, with a market share of 61.9% [26]. In 2021, four central enterprises and state-owned enterprises—China Communications Construction, China Power Construction, China Railway Group, and China State Construction Engineering—ranked among the top five in Africa's engineering contracting companies [27]. The reason why China's monopolist bourgeoisie is keen on infrastructure investment in Africa is that it not only allows the construction of roads and bridges conducive to plundering local products but also enables the signing of unequal treaties with high profits and various privileges (such as control rights along railways or roads, mineral exploration, and mining rights).
Chinese capital
The class still excels at using the means of state monopoly capitalism to export lending capital to Africa in the name of government and "assistance." They leverage debt relations to force colonies to purchase Chinese high-priced industrial products with loans, and to repay principal and interest with their own cheap agricultural and mineral products, even ceding national sovereignty (such as allowing China to lease land, station troops, or establish military bases). From 2000 to 2022, China’s total loans to Africa exceeded 170 billion USD[28]. Notably, China's loan capital export is closely combined with infrastructure investment, making China the largest creditor in African infrastructure construction. From 2008 to 2020, among the top ten financial institutions in Africa for infrastructure loans, two Chinese companies loaned a total of 33.8 billion USD, accounting for over 45%[29]. The Chinese government, through issuing loans that can only be used to pay Chinese enterprises for engineering projects, has opened a "door" for Chinese construction capital in Africa. In this way, China has established trade relations favorable to its own interests and conducted large-scale capital exports in Africa, controlling the entire economic life of its colonies. On this basis, it has achieved dominance over the colonies in political, military, ideological, and cultural aspects.二、军事侵略
To safeguard its political and economic interests in colonies and compete with other imperialist countries for influence, China has further carried out military invasions in Africa. In 2017, China established a “security base” in the capital of Djibouti with about 2,000 troops. This is China’s first (and still the only publicly known) military base in Africa. The base is used to guard the important oil route through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, supporting Chinese “peacekeeping” forces and navy, and protecting China’s colonial interests in Djibouti[30] and the entire East Africa region[31].
Currently, China’s military bases in Africa, in terms of quantity and scale, still lag far behind those of the United States and France. Therefore, China is very attentive to extending its armed influence worldwide. Since 2021, there have been reports that China will establish a permanent military base in Equatorial Guinea on the West African coast, serving as a forward outpost in the Atlantic controlled by European and American imperialism, to protect its colonial interests in West Africa. Moreover, China also relies on its ally, the Russian imperialist military forces in Africa, to make up for its deficiencies. Since 2021, the armies of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have successively launched coups supported by the Russian mercenary organization “Wagner” (or “African Legion”). Currently, after forming the “Sahel Alliance,” these three countries have withdrawn from the “West African Economic and Monetary Union” manipulated by French imperialism.
China not only actively establishes military bases in Africa but also heavily funds, supplies weapons, and dispatches personnel for United Nations “peacekeeping” missions. By November 2021, China had sent over 30,000 peacekeepers to 17 UN peacekeeping zones in Africa[32]. The UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1956. Since the 1980s and 1990s, many imperialist countries, in order to suppress the national liberation movements of colonies and semi-colonies, have used “peacekeeping operations” as a new form of invasion, under the guise of peace, to carry out aggression under the UN banner, uniting reactionary forces to suppress liberation movements[34]. The largest such operation, the 1960 “UN Congo Operation,” was launched by the US imperialists to suppress the Congolese independence movement, competing with Britain, France, Belgium, and others, sending nearly 20,000 peacekeepers to invade Congo, overthrow the democratically elected government, and establish a puppet regime.
China is both the major financial supporter and the vanguard of “peacekeeping operations.” Since 2016, China has become the second-largest contributor to UN peacekeeping expenses. In 2019, China’s share of the UN peacekeeping budget increased from about 10.24% to about 15.22%. The eight countries contributing the most to UN peacekeeping expenses from 2020 to 2021 are: the US (27.89%), China (15.21%), Japan (8.56%), Germany (6.09%), the UK (5.79%), France (5.61%), Italy (3.30%), and Russia (3.04%). In 2021, China paid over 5.2 billion yuan in UN peacekeeping contributions, accounting for about 49.2% of that department’s annual expenditure[37]. China is not only the country with the most “peacekeeping personnel” among the five permanent members of the Security Council (since 2009) but also the country with the largest number and variety of “peacekeeping standby troops” in the UN. Since 1992, China has dispatched over 50,000 peacekeepers, participating in nearly thirty UN peacekeeping missions in more than twenty countries and regions. Recently, with further deepening of economic penetration into Africa, China has accelerated armed invasion. In 2016, China established the world’s first standing “Peacekeeping Police Force.” In 2017, China registered a “Peacekeeping Standby Force” with up to 8,000 personnel. In December 2013, China dispatched a 170-member guard unit to Mali, called the “United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali” (MINUSMA) “battle zone ace.” In 2015, China sent a 700-strong infantry battalion to the UN Mission in South Sudan, and over five years, sent five additional battalions. From 2015 to 2020, China trained more than 1,500 “peacekeeping personnel” and over 1,000 “peacekeeping police” for more than sixty countries[39].
三、文化侵略
Chairman Mao said: “Imperialist powers, beyond all the methods mentioned above (economic, political, military, etc.), also do not relax their cultural invasion policy, which is one aspect of their spiritual intoxication of the Chinese people. Missionary work, hospitals, schools, newspapers, and attracting international students are the implementation of this invasion policy. Its purpose is to cultivate obedient intellectual cadres and deceive the broad Chinese masses.”[40] In modern Chinese history, the United States has been the most aggressive in cultural invasion, establishing numerous schools and attracting the most international students in China. Regarding their purpose, American imperialists have openly admitted: “Intellectual youth are the true rulers of the country”[41]. “The country that can educate this generation of young Chinese will gain the greatest benefits in spiritual and commercial influence from these efforts. If thirty years ago the US had already directed the trend of Chinese students to this country and could continue to expand it, we could now control China’s development in the most perfect and clever way” [42].
Today, the purpose of Chinese imperialism’s cultural invasion in Africa is no different from that of the old imperialist powers: to cultivate comprador intellectuals and place them in economic, political, military, and ideological fields, serving its colonial interests through “governing non-governed” methods. The main means China uses to achieve this is the establishment of Confucius Institutes under the pretext of “language and cultural exchange.” The first Confucius Institute in Africa was established in Kenya in 2005. By 2019, China had founded a total of 61 Confucius Institutes (for higher education) and 48 Confucius Classrooms (for primary and secondary education) in Africa[43], each with several teaching sites[44]. There are also unofficial “Chinese language education” or “cultural exchange” organizations.
Originally, China’s cultural invasion activities in Africa were openly conducted by the government—the “Confucius Institute Headquarters” (later renamed “Confucius Institute Headquarters”) directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education. Later, Western imperialist countries, to compete with China in ideological fields and resist the Confucianism that now serves Chinese colonial expansion, began to close Confucius Institutes domestically from around 2019, sparking a wave of opposition. To conceal the official nature of Confucius Institutes and make them more deceptive under the guise of “public welfare and charity” and “educational and cultural exchanges,” and to facilitate fundraising and establish more branches, the Ministry of Education transferred the operation of Confucius Institutes to “civil organizations” such as the “International Chinese Language Education Foundation” in 2020.
The shameless and superficial “African Sinologists” are exemplified by the Chinese imperialist’s cultural infiltration in Africa, which can be roughly divided into three parts: (1) Propaganda of pro-Chinese and Chinese-loving ideology—In Confucius Institutes, students are not only taught general Chinese language but also subjected to pro-Chinese and Sinocized education, brainwashed with reactionary culture of Chinese landlord bourgeoisie, such as eating Chinese food, wearing Hanfu, listening to Chinese songs, watching Chinese movies, celebrating Chinese festivals, and learning Chinese skills. Thus, the decayed capitalism China transforms into the so-called “advanced country of material and spiritual civilization”; decadent hedonism also spreads among colonial intellectuals, strengthening their identification with Chinese Confucian culture. Moreover, China uses phrases like “mutual benefit and win-win” and “gratuitous aid” to gloss over its invasion policy, distinguishing itself from old colonialism and dressing up as “old friends” and “close brothers” of the African people to deceive their closeness and trust. (2) Elimination of national consciousness—Imperialist China propagates social Darwinism, cultivating a group of “highly educated Blacks” and “spiritual Chinese” who despise their own nation and compatriots. They fully accept the imperialist and colonialist viewpoints: that Black people are barbaric, backward, lazy, morally corrupt, overpopulated… in short, “nations that cannot progress on their own.” They are ashamed to be members of their own nation. (3) Propaganda of bourgeois individual egoism—Confucius Institutes teach the Confucian idea of “learning to serve” and promote the idea that learning is for personal success. Besides spiritual indoctrination, China further employs material bribery. According to Benin’s national TV, students at the Confucius Institute at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin receive internships in Chinese companies with monthly stipends up to 150,000 West African francs (about 1,730 RMB), and graduates’ starting salaries range from 250,000 to 500,000 West African francs (about 2,880 to 5,770 RMB). Those who can obtain scholarships from the Chinese government or Confucius Institutes to study in China naturally enjoy higher salaries and may further work in official or semi-official institutions. China’s dual approach makes colonial intellectuals indifferent to politics and social realities, forget the suffering masses of their homeland, and become extreme egoists willing to sell out national interests and sell themselves to invaders for personal status, fame, and money.
Besides “Chinese language education” and “cultural exchanges,” China also implements so-called “vocational education” in Africa. At Conakry University in Guinea, there are not only Confucius Institutes but also “China-Guinea joint” railway and water conservancy engineering colleges. These are related to Chinese monopoly capital’s exploitation of local bauxite and iron ore railways[46] and a series of water conservancy projects[47] built by China. In Benin, the ninth-largest cotton producer and the largest in Africa, China has also “aided” the so-called “Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center”[48]. It is said to be used for “free promotion of advanced planting techniques and training in agricultural machinery use for local cotton farmers.” However, in impoverished and agriculturally backward Africa, individual farmers cannot practically use agricultural machinery. In fact, the center is merely training workers for textile enterprises controlled by Chinese capital.
It is precisely through education combining Chinese language and “vocational skills” that imperialist China has cultivated a group of comprador intellectuals who are both pro-Chinese and possess certain cultural and technical skills, creating a social basis for its “governing non-governed” policy, and more covertly and firmly controlling the economic lifelines of African countries.
“For the necessity of invasion, imperialism has created millions of new-style intellectuals different from the old-style literati or officials in China. For these people, imperialism and its running dogs, the reactionary Chinese government, can only control part of them; later, only a very few, such as Hu Shih, Fu Sien, Qian Mu, etc., can be controlled, while the rest have gone to its opposite. Students, teachers, professors, technicians, engineers, doctors, scientists, writers, artists, civil servants—all have revolted or are unwilling to follow the Kuomintang anymore.”[49]The imperialist culture prevalent in Africa today is a reflection of Africa’s economic and political domination by imperialism. As the contradictions between the imperialist metropole and the colonial dependencies develop and intensify, it is entirely foreseeable that there will be a resurgence of the African and global national liberation movements in the future. The African people will not only free themselves from the influence of imperialist enslaving culture in the ideological realm and create a new revolutionary culture belonging to their own national labor masses through struggle, but they will also achieve complete independence economically and politically, and their struggle will strongly support the proletarian socialist revolution. In the near future, the great combined force of the national liberation movement and the proletarian revolution will inevitably “bury imperialist bandits completely”[50]“a bright and splendid new world is about to come”[51]!
In the course of social imperialism, the inevitable demise of social imperialism, the people of the whole world will surely triumph!> >
Sohu News: "Overview and Outlook of China-Africa Economic and Trade Development: In 2020, China-Africa trade totaled $186.97 billion," https://www.sohu.com/a/522880623_120961824. ↑
>Yu Yichun: "China-Africa Agricultural Cooperation, Drawing a Blueprint for Poverty Reduction and Development in Africa (New Era China-Africa Cooperation)," People's Daily, August 26, 2024. ↑