By Matthew John
In recent years it has become fashionable to accuse China of economic coercion and domination in Africa - charges that often include dramatic allegations of “colonialism.” This narrative involves claims that China is engaging in widespread “debt-trap diplomacy,” buying up “vast tracts of African farm land [with] plans to transplant millions of Chinese peasants to live and work on the continent,” and other similar assertions. The notion that China is “colonizing Africa” was even endorsed by popular liberal comedian Trevor Noah back in 2021. One of the ostensibly ominous examples of Chinese machinations included in Noah’s segment was the case of Uganda’s Entebbe Airport.
A sensationalistic November 2021 report circulating in the Ugandan mainstream news media had caused paranoia after claiming that China was seizing the country’s only international airport as collateral for an unpaid loan. The story was then picked up by the Western press and essentially went viral. There was only one problem: It was completely false. Both Chinese and Ugandan government officials found themselves busy correcting the record during the days and weeks following this surge of fake news (there was a similar situation related to the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota). Noah acknowledged these clarifications, but continued his baseless anti-China alarmism by remarking, “‘We have never confiscated an airport’ is very different from ‘we are never going to confiscate an airport.’”
Noah’s monologue also included a deceptive, State Department-approved framing of the Taiwan issue and evidence-free claims regarding China’s employment practices on the continent in question. However, as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted, “The format of the Daily Show and comparable shows (e.g., Last Week Tonight With John Oliver) makes it possible to deliver political commentary and news with plausible deniability about political viewpoints (‘it’s only comedy’). Noah, a New York-based comedian who grew up in South Africa, did his best to spin Chinese investment in Africa into neo-colonialism—regardless of the underlying reality.”
Despite his flimsy evidence, poor arguments, and insulting insinuations, many liberal viewers likely perceive Noah’s origin story as some sort of bonus credibility on this topic. Maybe his actual arguments don’t need to be cogent - maybe his pronouncements are intrinsically valuable due to his “lived experience” (a concept that is regularly weaponized by Western bourgeois sources to promote imperialist narratives). If we are going to “listen to Africans,” as we generally should, there is a much more qualified candidate.
Gyude Moore is a Liberian researcher with the Center for Global Development and former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. From 2014 to 2018, Moore served as Liberia’s Minister of Public Works - a role that included oversight of significant infrastructure projects, putting him on the front lines of China-Africa economic relations. In 2019, he gave a talk at the Paulson Institute in which he elaborated upon Africa’s “suitability” as a natural economic partner for China and praised the overall fairness and respect Africa has been treated with by Chinese officials and organizations. Moore concluded his presentation by stating, “It is my view that China’s presence in Africa has been, and continues to be, a net positive.”
Another highly credentialed expert who has elucidated China-Africa relations while eschewing anti-China sensationalism is Johns Hopkins University professor Deborah Brautigam. In her 2015 book “Will China Feed Africa?”, Brautigam explored media-inspired perceptions of China’s role in African agriculture, including the popular “land grab” accusation. Reflecting on misleading mainstream news headlines like, “Chinese Farms Control Most of Zambia’s Agriculture,” and “China Recently Purchased Half the Farmland Under Cultivation in the Congo,” the author and her team conducted years of research to determine the validity of such scoops. On this simple issue of alleged land acquisition, Brautigam found that only about one percent of all arable land in Africa could be classified as being “owned” by Chinese companies.
Related claims, such as the idea that millions of Chinese farmers are being sent to live and work in Africa or that Africa is growing copious amounts of grain specifically for export to China, turned out to be fallacious as well. In an interview with the China-Global South Project, Brautigam provided a detailed analysis of the processes by which such ubiquitous confusion and deception are sown throughout our media landscape when it comes to China-Africa news. Brautigam also dismantled the aforementioned “debt-trap” myth in an important piece published by The Atlantic in 2021.
In addition to the “land grab” and “debt-trap” fantasies, there have been similar Western rumors that China favors working with African dictatorships, that it primarily hires Chinese laborers for projects in Africa, and that its interest in the region is solely driven by a desire for greater access to natural resources. You might not be surprised to learn that these notions have all been refuted with robust evidence to the contrary. As each component of the “Chinese colonialism” story unravels upon the slightest inspection, the overall narrative exposes itself as simply hyperbolic imperialist projection and bitterness toward China’s success. It is based on the absurd assumption that standard economic agreements between sovereign nations can only be based on colonial relations.
Colonialism is inherently racist, exploitative, ruthless, and genocidal. It forcibly extracts natural resources and labor through invasion, occupation, dispossession, subjugation, and brutal violence. Belgian colonialism in the Congo killed 10 million and British colonialism in India killed 100 million. More recent forms of Western neocolonialism in Africa (and throughout the Global South) have subjected states to neoliberal structural adjustment policies as part of Work Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions, forcing borrowing nations to slash social services and privatize industries for the benefit of Western capital. This is the real “debt-trap diplomacy.” And the vestiges of the West’s long history of colonialism are still at play in the region. As journalist Margaret Kimberly explained:
It is a French billionaire, Vincent Bolloré, who controls 16 West African ports through bribery and influence peddling. France also controls the CFA currency of its former colonies. Canadian companies control gold mining in Burkina Faso, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo. Decades after the struggle for independence, British soldiers are still stationed in Kenya.
China does not engage in this kind of domineering behavior toward developing countries. Its foreign policy is based on respectful diplomacy and cooperation, to a fault. China doesn’t invade African nations or sponsor military coups like the U.S. does. In fact, China hasn’t dropped a single bomb on human beings in about half a century. These observations have been echoed by African socialists like Kambale Musavuli, Mikaela Erskog, Fred M'membe, and Kyeretwie Opoku - all of whom have rejected disingenuous Western smears regarding China’s conduct in Africa. Many citizens of various African nations disagree with the Western framing of China-Africa relations as well; a 2024 survey revealed that about 82 percent of young Africans have a positive perception of China’s involvement in Africa’s economic development.
The reality is that Africa is getting a much better deal doing business with China. These partnerships allow the pursuit of much needed infrastructure projects to industrialize and modernize societies that were intentionally underdeveloped by Western colonizers. Loans issued by China are not only unconditional, but they are also regularly renegotiated or forgiven. Moore has cited 87 relevant instances of loan restructuring or rescheduling between the years 2000 and 2019, and China has more recently forgiven 23 loans in 17 African countries. The economic relationship China and Africa have built in recent years is mutually beneficial and, despite its imperfections and shortcomings (which were articulated by Moore during the aforementioned discussion), is not even remotely comparable to the vast, belligerent history of Western plunder of the continent. As professor Jason Hickel observed, this comparison “trivialises the extraordinary violence” of the West’s crimes and “is effectively a form of colonial denialism.”
