It’s quite straightforward:
- Help African countries build their infrastructure and, in the process, make lots of friends.
- Get a return on their loan investments.
- Improve trade with these countries, especially with respect to natural resources.
- Develop new consumer markets in Africa for Chinese products. This can only happen if China helps elevate the standard of living for African peoples.
- Offload low-end manufacturing to these countries where labour is abundant and cheap.
- Utilize China’s surplus infrastructure construction capacity; otherwise, it would go to waste.
It’s a win-win.
Of course, the West characterizes all of this as neo-colonialism. They’re green with envy…