Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

Chinese-African relations are historically rooted through shared struggle, mutually beneficial, and the model of South-South cooperation. They represent the best practices of international relations. It’s precisely because of their pragmatism that the US is spreading lies about them. America hopes to cling to its fading unipolar hegemony by stirring up trouble in Chinese-African relations through information warfare in a desperate but inevitably doomed attempt to cling to its fading unipolar hegemony. Washington wrongly believes that it can turn the continent into a theater of rivalry in the New Cold War.

The present analysis will identify and subsequently debunk the West’s top lies about Chinese-African relations. What comes next is a list of lies followed by the motive behind each. Then they’ll be discredited with the facts. The purpose in doing so is to raise greater awareness of the US’ latest information warfare campaign. It must be confidently challenged in order to expose Washington’s pernicious divide-and-rule intentions. The more that the world learns the truth behind the US’ lies, the faster it’ll complete its ongoing and irreversible transition to multipolarity.

1. Lie: “China only cares about extracting resources from Africa!”

Motive: Misportray China as a selfish power no different than Western ones.

Truth: The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) builds infrastructure and unleashes Africa’s economic capabilities.

2. Lie: “China catches African countries in debt traps!”

Motive: Deter African countries from accepting China’s no-strings-attached development loans.

Truth: All deals are voluntary and Chinese investment guarantees each project’s success with time. 

3. Lie: “China’s BRI deals worsen African corruption!”

Motive: Misportray China as an economically and politically irresponsible power exactly like the West.

Truth: China’s deals are with legitimate governments that have their own means of fighting corruption.

4. Lie: “China supports African dictators!”

Motive: Discredit the legitimacy of bilateral relations between China and various African countries.

Truth: All of China’s partners are UN-recognized states and governments thereof. 

5. Lie: “China’s engagement with Africa is opportunistic!”

Motive: Misportray China as having no mutually beneficial long-term strategy towards Africa.

Truth: China just published its “2035 Vision For China-Africa Cooperation” strategy document. 

6. Lie: “China’s secretly building military bases all over Africa!”

Motive: Fearmonger about China’s supposedly aggressive intentions.

Truth: China’s only foreign base is in Djibouti and aimed at facilitating regional anti-piracy operations. 

7. Lie: “China is destabilizing Africa!”

Motive: Misportray China’s growing comprehensive engagement with Africa as detrimental to stability.

Truth: China contributes more troops to UN peacekeeping missions than any other country in the world. 

8. Lie: “China doesn’t treat its African partners as equals!”

Motive: Falsely imply that China is hegemonistic.

Truth: The triennial Forum On China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) proves the equality of their relations. 

9. Lie: “China is racist!”

Motive: Scare Africans away from doing business with China and traveling to it.

Truth: China has unwaveringly fought against racism and the Chinese people are also victims of it. 

10. Lie: “China is neo-imperialist!”

Motive: Discredit China’s socialist ideology of shared development among Global South nations.

Truth: China supported African liberation struggles and invested more than $43.4 billion there by 2021. 

From the above examples, several information warfare trends can be clearly discerned. First, the most obvious is that the West is lying through its teeth about China. Second, it’s projecting its own motives and modus operandi onto China. Third, this confirms that it has what can be described as a “guilty conscience” but shamelessly doesn’t want to change its ways. Fourth, this is due to its obsession with retaining its fading hegemony. And fifth, the West cannot realistically “compete” with China in Africa.

Building upon the last observation, this explains why it’s resorting to subversive tactics like information warfare aimed at manipulating the minds of Africans and attacking China’s reputation as a reliable partner. Nevertheless, this is doomed to fail because facts always triumph over lies. Africans can see for themselves the mutual benefits of cooperating with China. It’s for this reason why the predicted Asian Century will surely be accompanied by an African Century and thus herald the rise of the Global South.

This article was originally published on oneworld.press