You don’t have to assume altruism here. The big difference between the west and China is that the west has lots of military presence in Africa while China does not. When countries refuse to work with the west on western terms then the west will either do a regime change, destabilize the country, or outright invade it as happened with Libya. The relationship between the west and the countries it subjugates is inherently coercive.
On the other hand, China does not have a history of using violence against countries that don’t trade with China and it does not have the military presence to threaten the kind of violence the west has been using when it doesn’t get its way.
My point is not to compare PLAN with AFRICOM. I am just not convinced it helps an African audience. It may help a Chinese apologist in saying “look, we are better than the US” but at the end of the day, they are both invested in extractive infrastructure.
One base, 100 bases, that is comparison. I am not interested. I gave that example not to compare but to remind the OP that China does indeed operate a military in Africa, because it was my understanding that the OP thought they do not.
It’s pretty telling that people in the west can’t even conceive of a mutually beneficial relationship between countries that’s not rooted in exploitation.
You don’t have to assume altruism here. The big difference between the west and China is that the west has lots of military presence in Africa while China does not. When countries refuse to work with the west on western terms then the west will either do a regime change, destabilize the country, or outright invade it as happened with Libya. The relationship between the west and the countries it subjugates is inherently coercive.
On the other hand, China does not have a history of using violence against countries that don’t trade with China and it does not have the military presence to threaten the kind of violence the west has been using when it doesn’t get its way.
Heard of PLAN’s base in Djibouti? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People’s_Liberation_Army_Support_Base_in_Djibouti
I refuse simplified dichotomies. They are not helpful to me. May be to you.
Who is over simplifying things? Is equating one base to NATO not oversimplified?
My point is not to compare PLAN with AFRICOM. I am just not convinced it helps an African audience. It may help a Chinese apologist in saying “look, we are better than the US” but at the end of the day, they are both invested in extractive infrastructure. One base, 100 bases, that is comparison. I am not interested. I gave that example not to compare but to remind the OP that China does indeed operate a military in Africa, because it was my understanding that the OP thought they do not.
There are literal studies out there showing that Chinese investment in Africa has had a significant and persistent positive impact on development of these countries https://www.eurasiareview.com/01022021-chinese-investment-in-africa-has-had-significant-and-persistently-positive-long-term-effects-despite-controversy/
It’s pretty telling that people in the west can’t even conceive of a mutually beneficial relationship between countries that’s not rooted in exploitation.