GROWING INFLUENCE
China is investing in Africa and that's a good thing
China is Africa's biggest trade partner and is helping to develop the continent's infrastructure
There has been a good deal of debate on China’s growing influence around the globe spearheaded by its economic and financial influence. The Trump administration is currently waging a trade war with China and trying to force renegotiations for better terms for US companies. Before you sing President Donald Trump’s praises, however, remember this is the same administration that has kept punitive steel tariffs on SA’s products, and leveraged SA’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) status to force us to buy US chicken. Unthinkable perhaps five years ago, the guardian for globalisation and agitator for liberal trade order is China. Xi Jinping, the president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, stood before world leaders in 2017 and urged against tendencies of protectionism in his address in Davos. We ought to move on from Cold War ideological fortresses if we wish to grab the proverbial bull by its horns and get African economies moving. My colleague, Pro...
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