Capitalism and imperialism
been funding growth of African infrastructure – roads, electricity, etc. – to the tune of $100bn in loans from 2000 to 2014. They ha ve been running mines in the Congo. Looking elsewhere, they’ve pro mised a lot of loans to Latin America. In 2010, it was more than the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Import-Export Bank combined, according to The Economist . It is difficult to deny that these things will result in some growth of industry and the progression of the economy.
Repercussions for Africa and the ‘Third World’
However, a good Marxist pays attention to the way that any economic development hits the working class. The loans push domestic politicians to support Chinese interests, to continue supplying them with the resources they need, rather than using them for domestic industry and a well-rounded economy, and to stay on China’s good side, lest the creditors demand sudden repayment. In some places, like Tonga, this has led to debt traps, and in 20132014, debt repayment to China took out 44% of Tonga’s GDP. In Sri Lanka, a massive Chinese -funded port in Hambantota ended up in the hands of the ‘China Merchants’ state -owned company on a 99-year lease, in return for further investment to cover the growing Sri Lankan debts. Even though, often, China’s loans have below market interest rates and longer repayment periods, it still contributes to the continuous economic drain of postcolonial countries through debt repayments, whereby large parts of the revenue (both tax revenue and production revenue) do not go to addressing health problems, education, or that which the nation needs, but to the payment of foreign imperialist powers through profits and loan repayments. This is one of the biggest weights on ‘third world’ economies. The focus on export of raw materials and the import of Chinese skilled labourers and goods (as well as the arrival of Chinese firms in the economy) means that the growth of secondary and tertiary sectors from the BRI has not been wholly beneficial to African firms or skilled labourers, which has led to a number of protests and has left such economies dependent on foreign agents and involvement. The expansion of wage labour that accompanies these projects, further, means simply a growth of an exploited, proletariat class, one which is barely compensated with the wage necessary to survive, while the actual products it produces are owned by a bourgeois class who reaps the profit. The enterprises created have little to no concern for human rights or the welfare of their workers or for the wider region, and the growth of industry in these nations is characterized by long work hours, workplace accidents, and abysmal conditions. And, lastly, the agreements of the BRI represent the cosying up of imperial powers to corrupt elites and politicians in target countries, fuelling corrupt political classes that have, in a number of cases, embezzled money intended for aid or the growth of industry.
Overview of China
In this way, it becomes clear that China’s foreign policy is an imperialist one . It serves to benefit the bourgeois class, and is strictly linked to China’s capitalist character. China takes in African raw materials, manufactures products out of them, and sells these products back to Africa and the world, cutting Africa out of the middle stage and preventing the transfer of skills or technology to Africa. As Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said in the Financial Times, ‘China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones . . . Africa must recognize that China – like the USA, Russia, Britain, Brazil and the rest – is in Africa not for African interests but its own. ’
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