Belt & Road Initiative: Chinese Partnership or Neo-Colonialism?

Published June 27, 2024

In this Q&A session, Jendayi Frazer explores the underlying motives and lasting impacts of foreign entanglement in African affairs. China’s debt-trap diplomacy through its Belt & Road Initiative; the Soviet Union’s ideological expansion during the Cold War; modern Russia’s destabilizing pursuit of African minerals through military regime proxies; even European reparations fall under the microscope to examine whether or not these efforts even modestly align with African interests or are entirely self-serving. To avoid a repeat of historic abuses, manipulation, and even colonialization, African nations must better understand the ambitions of foreign actors so that those nations may remain partners, not pawns.

Check out more from Jendayi Frazer:

• Read "Engaging Africa on its Own Terms" by Jendayi Frazer here.
• Read "The Kosovo Conditions and the Case for American Unilateral Recognition of Somaliland" by Oliver McPherson-Smith & Jendayi Frazer here.
• Watch "Interest in South Africa Political Developments," an interview with Jendayi Frazer here.

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