In this mailing: - Judith Bergman: China Taking Over Africa: 'China's Second Continent'
- Yves Mamou: French Presidential Election: Macron v. Le Pen... Again
by Judith Bergman • April 11, 2022 at 5:00 am "America cannot ignore Africa. Africa's challenges, opportunities, and security interests are inseparable from our own.... Our competitors clearly see Africa's rich potential. Russia and China both seek to convert soft and hard power investments into political influence, strategic access, and military advantage. China's economic and diplomatic engagements allow it to buttress autocracies and change international norms in a patient effort to claim their second continent." — General Stephen Townsend, Commander of United States Africa Command, Senate Armed Services Committee, March 15, 2022. About 40 out of Africa's 54 countries participate in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the global infrastructure and economic development project that the Chinese Communist Party launched in 2013. BRI aims to build an economic and infrastructure network connecting China with Europe, Africa and beyond, and has already strengthened China's global influence from East Asia to Europe by making countries worldwide increasingly dependent on China. "China is dependent on Africa for imports of fossil fuels and commodities... Beijing has increased its control of African commodities through strategic direct investment in oil fields, mines, and production facilities, as well as through resource-backed loans that call for in-kind payments of commodities. This control threatens the ability of U.S. companies to access key supplies." — US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 2020 annual report to Congress. In June 2021, in an extremely belated attempt to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative, the Biden administration together with the G7 launched a new global infrastructure initiative, the Build Back Better World (B3W).... The initiative, however, comes across as far too little, too late. Between 2007 and 2020, China invested $23 billion in infrastructure projects in Africa, according to the Center for Global Development, a US think tank. That is reportedly "$8 billion more than... the other top eight lenders combined..." It will be very near impossible for the US or others to catch up on that, especially with the planned B3W initiative, because that initiative is not focused on much-needed tangible investments. Instead, its four focus areas are climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality. "More troubling is B3W's apparent excision of hard physical infrastructure from its remit... In Africa, which lags all other regions of the world in the availability of paved roads and electricity [and rail], that deficit that deficit is set to grow without a massive influx of hard infrastructure investment..." — Gyude Moore, senior policy fellow, Center for Global Development, African Business, February 13, 2022. In the absence of a serious coordinated international effort, China will go on to fill that infrastructure gap, as it continues to consolidate its influence in Africa while the US lags behind.
 "America cannot ignore Africa. Africa's challenges, opportunities, and security interests are inseparable from our own.... Our competitors clearly see Africa's rich potential. Russia and China both seek to convert soft and hard power investments into political influence, strategic access, and military advantage...." — General Stephen Townsend, Commander of United States Africa Command. Pictured: Townsend (center) reviews an honor guard of the of the Djiboutian Armed Forces with Lt. Gen. Zakaria Cheikh Ibrahim, Djiboutian chief of staff, in Djibouti City on August 8, 2019. (Image source: U.S. Africa Command Public Relations) China continues to deepen its engagement in Africa on all levels. Recently it engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity with African countries. In March alone, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held bilateral talks with his African counterparts in Algeria, Egypt, The Gambia, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Zambia. The talks came only two months after Wang Yi visited Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros. Also in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which the two spoke about deepening cooperation between the two countries. Ramaphosa affirmed that he supports China's policies on Taiwan, Tibet, and other "major issues". Continue Reading Article by Yves Mamou • April 11, 2022 at 4:00 am While Macron appears well on his way to being re-elected, it is appropriate first to draw a balance sheet of his actions as president. For five years, his term has been marked by political scandals that all had the same origin: the desire of this president, with his background in investment banking, to make the state work like a start-up -- that is to say, to make the state work without the state's services. Macron has tried to create a private militia that works around the security organization of the presidency of the Republic... also in the name of efficiency, he has asked consulting firms (such as McKinsey; Boston Consulting Group, Accenture), in place of the large state institutions and ministries, to formulate polices on the environment, health, security, labor and retirement. Distrust and contempt sparked the Gilets Jaunes ("Yellow Vests") protest movement in 2019, when an increase in fuel prices provoked months of demonstrations by France's working class -- those whom globalization has relegated to the outskirts of large cities and who need their cars to go to work. This protest movement, despised and misunderstood, was repressed by the police with extreme violence. Macron did not, however, despise everyone. He has given the greatest consideration to Islam and Muslim immigration. During his five-year term, immigration from Africa, North Africa and Asia was not considered a danger, but an "opportunity" for France. Despite this catastrophic record, it is likely that Macron will be re-elected on April 24. By whom? Who are his voters? First of all, let us specify that one out of four voters did not even vote. Yet it is precisely Le Pen's electorate who are suffering from this situation: namely, young people and the working classes. Macron's voters are mainly retired people, executives, and inhabitants of big cities. Executives benefit from globalization, and the elderly and retired people do not like what appears to a revolution; they are afraid of the radical changes proposed by candidates such as Zemmour or Le Pen. The elderly are not the majority, but they vote.
 While Emmanuel Macron appears well on his way to being re-elected as president of France, it is appropriate first to draw a balance sheet of his actions as president. For five years, his term has been marked by political scandals that all had the same origin: the desire of this president, with his background in investment banking, to make the state work like a start-up -- that is to say, to make the state work without the state's services. (Photo by Lionel Bonaventure /AFP via Getty Images) Marine Le Pen and the incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron will face each other in the second round of the French presidential election on April 24. The results of yesterday's first round, with 97% of the votes tallied, show Macron coming out ahead with 27.6% of the vote, followed by Le Pen at 23.4%. The result is a kind of surprise. Four months ago, the journalist Éric Zemmour made a lightning breakthrough in the polls by forcing all his opponents to take up his favorite theme: the fight against mass immigration. Zemmour even appeared to be in a position to supplant Le Pen and to compete with Macron in the second round of presidential elections. Continue Reading Article |
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