China's Belt and Road Initiative: Risk Outlook China's Belt and Road Risk Outlook | Page 13

REGIONAL OUTLOOKS
AFRICA
China has become the largest source of foreign funds for African projects, due in no small part to
Chinese attempts to bring the east of the continent into the BRI's embrace.
China’s ongoing investment on the African
continent has been the subject of
controversy and suspicion for some time now,
investing in 293 projects since 2005 to the
value of some US$66.4 billion. The benefits of
the move are obvious, with Chinese money
filling major potholes on the road to African
economic development while opening up both
markets to a booming middle class on either
side of the globe. Bilateral trade has soared to
more than $160 billion in revenue each year, at
the same time as the West axes its foreign aid
budgets and own FDI flows. But it’s not a
balanced relationship: in 2016, Chinese exports
to Africa amounted to $82.9 billion, with African
outflows leveling out at just $54.2 billion.
Chinese investment is in some ways just as
political as the actions of Africa’s former
colonisers, a means of securing critical
pressure points between East and West.
SECURING WATERWAYS VIA DJIBOUTI
Hot on the heels of a polished opening ceremony at China’s first ever overseas military base in
Djibouti, a tiny African nation of just 875,000 people, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops have begun
holding live-fire drills in the surrounding sands under the banner of peacekeeping missions.
Traditionally the playground of bases belonging to the US and its allies, Djibouti has emerged as a vital
security beachhead in the struggle to secure global maritime routes, the BRI included, and China’s
perceived intrusion has not gone unnoticed.
China first announced plans for the base in 2015, beginning construction soon afterwards. Signing an
initial 10-year lease for the site, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has alleged that the base will support
Chinese troops escorting ships in the Gulf of Aden and pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast. With
a military budget second only to the US, and expanding by the year- spending is set to double to $233
billion in 2020- China is bound to continue its current trajectory of military investment on the continent
in coming years.
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