China’s 20 year diplomatic march in Africa is translating into influence.
A survey released this week by South Africa’s Ichikowitz Family Foundation shows that youths aged 18 to 24 across 15 African nations see China as the foreign power with the biggest positive impact on their lives.
That’s a turnaround from two years ago, when the same exercise put the US in pole position. Now the world’s biggest economy lags even the UK and the European Union.
And while the US has repeatedly cautioned African governments about the dangers of taking on Chinese debt for infrastructure projects, it’s the flood of affordable goods from the Asian country that has swayed minds. From Huawei mobile phones to solar panels and eveyday consumer products, ‘Made in China’ has become a part of everyday life.
It’s not all positive for China. Almost three-fifths of the social-media using youths surveyed believe the conspiracy theory that China deliberately developed and spread Covid-19.
Yet the US and its corporations have been largely absent from Africa since the turn of the century, aside from a few high profile aid programs such as Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative. Meanwhile, Chinese firms have been building roads, dams and power plants. As Ivor Ichikowitz, the foundation’s founder, put it, the US’s role has been “embarrassingly insignificant” in terms of actual investment.
Source: Bloomberg
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