# Africa



## AWP (Jul 15, 2017)

We have a thread on Afghanistan and one on the Iraq/ ISIS/ Syria fight, so I thought I'd start one on a hot but little know series of topics in Africa (piracy, terrorism, etc.). First up, Chinese expansion near an existing US base.

China sends troops to Djibouti, establishes first overseas military base - CNN.com



> _(CNN) _China has dispatched troops to Djibouti in advance of formally establishing the country's first overseas military base.
> 
> "Certainly this is the People's Liberation Army's first overseas base and we will base troops there. It's not a commercial resupply point... This base can support Chinese Navy to go farther, so it means a lot," said the paper.
> 
> ...



While it has long operated in the area, this gives China a major support/ ISR hub in the region.


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## Dienekes (Jul 16, 2017)

China's ridiculous level of investment and lending to the developing world will provide them with major dividends on the world stage in the next 10-15 years which the US won't see because ya know "I want it now" and all that jazz.


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## Kraut783 (Jul 16, 2017)

I would have to agree, China has long been reaching out to "whoever" in Africa for access to rare earth minerals/metal.


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## DA SWO (Jul 16, 2017)

China tends to piss off the locals buy bringing Chinese workers in and leaving the host nation with a sub-standard product when they leave.

We need to watch them, because eventually we will have a conflict with China, but they will implode over the long haul.


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## Dienekes (Jul 16, 2017)

I don't know where you're getting that from sir. Everything that I've read suggests that the African's like the Chinese specifically because they use African workers when they can. One of the reasons that they are going abroad is because the Chinese wage is rising. Also, they are investing in actual infrastructure projects like roads and what not that no one else wants to invest in.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/chinas-investments-in-africa-whats-the-realstory/

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/03/why-the-china-model-isnt-goingaway/274237/

5 Myths About Chinese Investment in Africaafrica/

Chen, Wenjie, David Dollar, and Heiwai Tang. Why is China Investing in Africa? Washington D.C.: Brookings Institute, 2015.


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## Gunz (Jul 18, 2017)

The PLA openly setting up in Djibouti is interesting not because the PLA is getting involved on foreign soil--which it has done covertly for years in concert with the Ministry of State Security and various overt PRC business and diplomatic interests--but because it's doing so publicly. That's surprising but illuminating. It's Cinderella formally coming to the ball and not trying to sneak in through the kitchen door.

The past MO for foreign activities has been rather low key, with PRC military, diplomatic, business and espionage interests in foreign locales--like Africa and Central and South America--focused on mutually supportive if not interchangeable policy-driven objectives.  In other words, if you're dealing with Chinese business representatives chances are you're also dealing at the same time with the MSS, PLA military intelligence and the Chinese government but you can't be sure who it is exactly that you're talking to. All of them at once most likely.

The PRC has many interests in Panama, at both ends of the canal. Now an open military presence at the mouth of the Red Sea near the Gulf of Suez.


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