USSR
CCCP
URSS
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas
1922 - 2022
✮
In response to:
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/545384-china-hornofafrica-military-base/
Anti-Western rhetoric and propaganda make many commentators lose sight of the real situation. If Chinese soft intervention should, at times, be welcomed around the world, especially in the Third World, as it offers an alternative and pitches competitors against each other for better terms, nobody should be fooled about the commercial or imperial intentions of any actors.
The most important issue at stake in the Horn of Africa today, is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, a project in which China is, perhaps in an indirect and discrete way (not to attract the enmity of some countries), involved. With all likelihood, it is GERD the project that has unleashed the recent wars in Ethiopia (even the problems in Sudan might be related), proxy conflicts to try to stop or delay the functioning of the dam and its fundamental, life threatening, impact on Sudan and Egypt.
Chinese soft intervention is not devoid of risks and is not always well received by the population of the countries involved, as Chinese companies and migrants have very different cultures, aims and aspirations that do not integrate well. As pointed out in the article, it is clear that China, correctly, seeks to bypass, isolate or control its main rival, India, by reviving its long history of relations with East Africa and expanding in the Indian Ocean. However, its strategy in Africa is antagonising Egypt and, with it, its allies in the Arab World. A destabilised Egypt will risk conflict with Israel and the wider zone, something America, logically, would try to prevent.
