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21 century m'zuŋ u ‘neo-colonialism’
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Control through Dependency
Uighurs and Indonesia. Nor is it unaware that there are several nations vying for the
perceived leadership of the Moslem world, and that Moslem followers already constitute
some 30% of the global population.

China might be excused for thinking that its better - and very definitely a lot cheaper -
to defuse the potential for a threat by acting now.

In much the same way that China has militarily 'closed the 2 small geographic access
points that might have allowed military intervention or other armed intervention to pass

through the Himalayas region into China.

China’s policy towards Africa has until now been a blend of immediate commercial
and economic self-interests together with a use of ‘debt’ to help African nations to finance

infrastructure developments in the short term but designed to increase China’s long-erm
leverage.

Obviously, as international rivalry builds up its almost certain that China’s policies can

be expected to harden.
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According to McKinsey, a management consultancy, there are now 10,000 Chinese

businesses on the African continent. China's dramatic investments have encouraged
other countries, most notably India, to follow suit. At the same time, China is changing
the terms of its engagement, increasingly cashing in economic connections for political

and military ties--again with others, such as Turkey and Russia, looking to do the same.
Alex Vines of Chatham House, a think-tank in London, talks of a "new scramble for

Africa".

"A Sub-Saharan Seduction - 214
Africa Is Attracting Ever More Interest from Powers Elsewhere"
The Economist." (March 2019)
*****
The majority of China's low-income borrowers are in Africa, where China made its first
loan to Guinea in 1960. Today, China accounts for about 17 percent of African debt,

according to the World Bank.

China does not publish data on its overseas lending, but our China Africa Research
Initiative team at Johns Hopkins University has tracked more than a thousand Chinese

loans - worth $152 billion - extended to 49 African governments and their state-owned
companies between 2000 and 2018.