Chinese leader Xi Jinping poses with African leaders, including Malawi's President Arthur Peter Mutharika (2nd row, 2nd right), during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2018. (How Hwee Young/AFP/Getty Images)
Unbeknownst to most of the world, the Chinese are hard at work exploiting African mineral wealth.
The major component of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s plan for China to become the world’s leading economic power is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI goal is to develop a global infrastructure controlled by communist China.
The infrastructure elements are focused on the development of transportation assets such as roads, ports, railroads, bridges, etc., that can later be exploited by Beijing to transport the resources and raw materials needed to fuel Chinese manufacturing concerns, as well as on mineral, oil, and gas extraction as appropriate. The transportation networks will also support the exportation and delivery of finished Chinese goods to overseas markets around the world. BRI investments also include renewable energy projects, communications infrastructures, and cultural exchanges.
Because of its vast mineral wealth, Chinese investment in Africa features prominently in the BRI scheme. The Chinese have made investments of “hundreds of billions” of dollars in 40 of 55 African countries to date, according to U.S. News and World Report, with grandiose plans for the construction of ports, roads, and railways.
A mounted police officer stands outside Ivory Coast's newly inaugurated 60,000-seat Olympic stadium, built with the help of China, in Ebimpe on Oct. 3, 2020. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images)
The concept of extracting material riches from Africa is not new. European colonial empires in Africa were established exactly for that reason, beginning in the 15th century. African colonialism accelerated greatly during the period 1881 through 1914. Sometimes called the “scramble for Africa,” by the beginning of World War I in 1914, “around 90% of Africa was under European rule,” according to the World Atlas.
In 1870, the French conceived of a north-south Trans-Saharan Railway linking Algeria to the port city of Dakar, Senegal in western Africa, and to parts east and south in the Belgian Congo in the heart of central Africa, and the east African coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya.
The railway was envisioned as an overland conveyor belt for the mineral riches of Africa to industries in France, including the nickel, cobalt, and copper of the Congo and the mineral wealth of the Bushveld Province in South Africa, which “hosts the majority of global platinum-group element, chromium, and vanadium resources, in addition to major deposits of copper, nickel, gold, tin, iron, fluorite, and dimension stone,” according to Mining Review Africa.
The British counterpart to the French scheme was the Cape-to-Cairo railway, which was proposed in 1874 to link parts of the British empire in Africa between Cairo, Egypt, and Cape Town, South Africa, as discussed by the Institute of Civil Engineering. The entrepreneur (some would say “imperialist”) Cecil Rhodes was a big proponent at the time, given his massive investments in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe). However, like the French railway, the line was never completed, as there are no railway segments in the Sudan or Uganda. But at least the project did complete the famous Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi River, which connects Zambia and Zimbabwe, in 1905.
Enter the Chinese and their grand vision of a Trans-African railway, linking Port Sudan on the Red Sea all the way to Dakar on the Atlantic Coast. Call it the “African Silk Road.” That amounts to 4,700 miles of track over some of the most difficult terrain in the world from Africa’s east coast to its west coast!
The first increment across Sudan to Chad was contracted for in 2017, according to Global Construction Review. Branch lines will radiate north and mostly south to span the vast continent and interconnect the “Spider Dragon’s” vast web of commerce that is envisioned by the Chinese communists (Chicoms) in central Africa.
China just happens to be the largest importer of Sudanese oil, capturing 60 percent of the country’s oil exports, as reported by Advanced Energy Technologies in 2018. China is also engineering and financing thermal power generation plants in eastern Sudan to power its electric railroads, according to the Institute of Developing Economies.
After the Port Sudan to Ndajema section is completed, the Niger and Mali sections in north central Africa will be completed. Geographers call the savanna grasslands south of the sandy, rocky Sahara Desert, the Sahel. Building this part of the railway to eventually envelop all of Africa presents only geopolitical problems. Although semi-arid, there is sufficient water available, and there are no major mountains to conquer.
It is predictable that the Islamic bandits causing a kerfuffle along the Niger River in Mali (refer to the Strategy Page for an up-to-date synopsis of Islamic terrorism in Mali) may soon be hired to help build the railroad. The BRI-funded cash that they earn will melt away their religious fervor against non-believers—or if not, the Chicoms will somehow cause them to cease to exist. The Chicoms, after all, are not bashful about taking any necessary measures to achieve their goals. Uyghur country in Xinjiang is a case in point in which dissident Chinese Muslims are put by the hundreds of thousands into “re-education camps” until they begin to understand that Allah and Muhammad are not to be tolerated any longer. Can that be the future for Muslims in central Africa when/if they create problems for the trans-Africa railway?
Meanwhile, the Chinese are shoring up the west end of the trans-Africa railway with plans to invest $1.1 billion in a new 1,500-acre port at Ndayane, near Dakar, Senegal, according to the Maritime Executive. The new port will serve as a logistics hub and gateway to western and northwest Africa, as well as another significant piece of the “Spider Dragon’s” economic web. This project is just the latest in a long line of Chinese investments in the country.
Security officers walk past a banner at the entrance of a conference hall during the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting at the Diamniadio in Dakar, Senegal, on Nov. 29, 2021. (Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images)
Once that Trans-Africa rail line has been shot east and west across the whole 4,700 miles, north and south branch lines down each coast might swiftly follow, which would facilitate the delivery of finished Chinese goods to a billion new customers—with that billion who, in turn, can mine the Dark Continent for its mineral wealth in order to pay back the Chinese for their BRI investments over the years.
Conclusion
While it is difficult to predict the completion date for the trans-Africa railway, the Chicoms may have more “staying power” than the French or British did. After all, the rest of the world—especially the United States—is helping Beijing fund the BRI, thanks to massive trade surpluses. The communists love it when the rest of the world buys products that are “Made in China!”
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Stu Cvrk retired as a captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Cvrk is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.
