"China Is Getting Ready to Surge Troops Into Africa" Topic

"Chinese activities in Africa have expanded massively during the last decade. To be sure, most of this has been purely economic—such as bartering access to natural resources in exchange for loans.

But these money-making activities have grown so much in recent years, China is realizing it can't keep relying on African governments to protect them—and the thousands of Chinese nationals who've moved to the continent.

Beijing isn't giving up on making business deals in Africa. Far from it. It's just that protecting those economic ties is turning into a job for the Chinese military…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Well, they are in charge in China, so that really isn't too surprising that the military is in charge in far off Africa as well.

And it's not like the Chinese didn't tell the Africans that if there was trouble they'd be deploying troops there.

Apparently the Chinese are very up-front about what they want and expect in Africa, and the locals seem to appreciate it.

Neo-imperialism is alive and well.

'Well, they are in charge in China, so that really isn't too surprising that the military is in charge in far off Africa as well.'

This is not strictly true. The PLA is an arm of the Party, not vice versa.

President Xi is not from the military. He came up the ranks as a Provincial Governor, like most of the leadership. Yet is Chairman of the Central Military Commission as well as President of the People's Republic of China, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Of the three positions, the latter is by far the most important.

Given the way he is culling the military, I'd say there is no doubt that the Party, not the military is in charge in China.

Hope they bring a lot of sun screen, bug repellent and get all their shots …

Neo-imperialism is alive and well.

It never really died … just morphed into version 2.0 … 3.0 …

I don't know about you guys abroad but here, in "the land of the free", we don't hear much news about what China does around the world, except stories that make China look like our greatest ally in all things.

Dan
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize" – Voltaire

except stories that make China look like our greatest ally in all things.

In Australia they're portrayed a Enemy Number 1, even though they're a major trading partner.

But Australia has always feared the Asians. It's one of the main reasons the country was unified in 1901.

Well, I think you guys have a more realistic POV, being that you have them so close and are more aware of their aggressive expansionist goals in the area.

Kudos to Aussie media then, for telling it like it is!

Dan

But Australia has always feared the Asians. It's one of the main reasons the country was unified in 1901.
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Wasn't that linked to the now fortunately dismantled White Australia policy? Personally as someone married to someone Chinese and working for the UK govt, whilst I recognise that China the country is a potential threat, the problem as the past has shown is that such povs could morph in the heads of the less sophisticated (to be PC) into anti people (in this case Chinese) sentiment'

except stories that make China look like our greatest ally in all things.

I've always thought of the U.S. and China as two heroin addicts shooting each other up myself!

Wasn't that linked to the now fortunately dismantled White Australia policy? Personally as someone married to someone Chinese and working for the UK govt, whilst I recognise that China the country is a potential threat, the problem as the past has shown is that such povs could morph in the heads of the less sophisticated (to be PC) into anti people (in this case Chinese) sentiment'

I still often hear anti-Asian sentiment – fear of China or Indonesia invading Australia or Japan and China buying everything up or Asians in general stealing Aussie jobs cause they'll "work for a bag of rice a day".

I was even hearing this from university students studying political science in 2003/04!

Thats a pity – we have that in the UK re Poles etc – kind of missing the point that they are doing jobs that not an insignificant number of people in the UK won't do as the wage is too low/don't have the work ethic.