Non-Interference Or Neo-Colonialism? Assessing The Implications Of Chinese Foreign Policy And Influence In East Africa Via The Belt And Road Initiative
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In March 2021, the US Interim National Security Strategic Guidance identified China as one of the primary threats to American national security. The guidance accused China of combining “its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.” One of the alleged mechanisms for China’s challenge of international status quo is through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a transnational infrastructure project development strategy. Some experts believe BRI is solely an economic initiative that aims to enhance global economic connectivity and cooperation, while others argue BRI is a geopolitical tool, part of a larger Chinese grand strategy seeking to further China’s influence abroad.3 Is China’s BRI reflective of a China that is consistent with its traditional foreign policy of “non-interference” or does it portend a neocolonial power seeking to further its influence abroad and undermining the sovereignty of other states? Does the BRI actually benefit the participating countries or has China utilized debt-trap tactics to seize control of strategic assets from heavily indebted countries?
This paper will examine China’s campaign in East Africa as a case study of the BRI’s influence abroad by exploring specific BRI countries and projects in the region. This empirical inquiry into China’s East African presence will identify trends and patterns of Chinese foreign policy in the region, and potentially explain China’s underlying motivations behind the BRI at large. While China has long engaged in a policy of non-interference with its East African partners, this study argues that China’s current foreign policy—spearheaded by BRI—has transformed into one characterized by soft-power projection with neocolonial undertones. Although China’s engagements abroad fall short of the popular debt-trap diplomacy narrative (defined later in this paper), Beijing nonetheless seeks to elevate itself toward a Sino-centric international order that resembles its former imperial tributary system.