CHINA ARMING AFRICA

Not only has China become the world’s #1 exporter of most everything that was once Made-in-America, it is now taking a piece of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex market sector.
China’s budding relationship with African nations is becoming increasingly apparent not only with its Belt and Road initiative, but now through its arms sales and training of militaries throughout the continent. 
The Wall Street Journal, citing analysis by an intelligence company, reported that there has been a sharp increase in equipment sales to Africa. 
“The trend is clearly upward and what that arms sales diplomacy gives China is a lot more influence, a lot more power, over those African states,” Dylan Lee Lehrke, the lead analyst at Janes, the company known for its publications on global weapons, told the Journal. 
The Trends Journal has reported on China’s growing influence in Africa and security concerns that the U.S. has with the growing reach. (See “U.S. EXPANDING WARZONE TO STOP CHINA’S EXPANSION.”)
We reported in our 15 February 2022 issue that the Biden administration was reportedly in panic mode over China’s apparent ambitions to develop a military base in Equatorial Guinea, which would give Beijing a port on the Atlantic Ocean. 
President Joe Biden said last year that Beijing is the U.S.’s “most serious competitor” and announced that he was forming a task force to counter China’s growth during his presidency. 
Biden told a bipartisan group of senators that the U.S. needs to upgrade its infrastructure or the Chinese are “going to eat our lunch.”  
The WSJ reported that Beijing’s deals with African countries are giving China a “strong foothold” on the continent. About 70 percent of African countries there have armored military vehicles from China. The paper said the top customers are Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Gabon, and Ethiopia.
John Calabrese, the director of American University’s Middle East-Asia Project, told Quartz Africa, “For decades, U.S. Africa policy has reflected two main considerations—an obsession with China and a preoccupation with countering violent extremism across the Sahel.”
He said Washington has been consistent in failing to follow through with ambitious plans in Africa.
“Ever since the launching of Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ initiative, there hasn’t been much action. If the US were to exercise leadership and make use of its convening power to devise new and revitalize existing multilateral approaches, perhaps its reputation could also be revived on the ground in Africa.”
TREND FORECAST: Top Trend for 2021: “THE RISE OF CHINA”: As we have forecast, the 20th century was the American century—the 21st century will be the Chinese century. The business of China is business; the business of America is war. 
While America spent countless trillions waging and losing endless wars and enriching its military-industrial complex, China has spent its trillions advancing the nation’s businesses and building its 21st-century infrastructure.
As the century moves forward, China will continue to expand its military strength throughout Africa, Asia and South America.