CHINA The Game Changer
Zambia must never abandon China. Any country that does that, commits suicide. Even the American economy is today running in trillions of dollars on Chinese debt.
CHINA will soon be the largest economy in the world. To a large and significant degree, this will be made to happen by Africa. China has about 1.4 billion people, and each of these Chinese citizens is a consumer of goods and services on a daily basis. This is exactly why not a single country in the world can ignore China as a trading partner. As an example, only four hundred million pineapples at one US dollar each could easily translate into 400 million dollars for Zambia, and subsequently Zambia's balance of payments would improve, the per capita income would go up and poverty in Zambia would end. Africa has about 1.2 billion people, add this to China's, and when you toss in India, which has about 1 billion people, you have over half of the world's population trading together minus the West. This is a serious trade imbalance for the West. And this is what is worrying the West. With the growth of China as the leading economic power in the world, global political power will also shift from the West. It will shift East. It is this shift in global political power, heralding the decline of the Western Empire which is causing the West to now panic. Sadly for the West, this course of events is unstoppable. This explains why both the British prime minister and the German chancellor were in Africa recently to secure their own quotas of the African market. With time, the West will become marginalised, desperate and dangerous. All these utterances such as that Africa in falling into a Chinese debt trap, and that sovereignty of African countries will as a consequence of his debt trap be lost, that African countries will soon be colonised by China are a clear reflection of Western paranoia. They are as false as they are misleading. They are merely reliable symptoms of Western discomfort both in economic and political terms. Propaganda against China for its stigmatisation is coming from the West, enemies of China. And this will get worse. Western budgetary support to many African countries will soon be withheld under many pretexts to punish these countries for bonding with China. This is why that it is very important that our own Republican President as he opened the 3rd Session of Parliament, making a timely clarification, he said: ‘Zambia's association with one country does NOT mean enmity with others!’
Zambia must never abandon China. Any country that does that, abandons China that is, commits suicide. Even the American economy is today running in trillions of dollars on Chinese debt.
— Dr. Canisius Banda. Nonetheless, what we are presently witnessing is a global power struggle between the West and the East. And Africa is its playground. This is akin to a second scramble for Africa. This time it is more economic than before. The first scramble for Africa was for the establishment of the Western Empire. It succeeded. This second scramble is for the survival of this empire. It is likely to fail. Because of China's attitude to Africa, of trade with no political interference in the running of the partner countries, the bond between Africa will only grow stronger. This is the sad news the West will have to cope with. Further, unfortunately for many African countries, punishment will be meted out on them by the West, which punishment might even take the form of deliberate destabilisation of economies and attempts at regime change. For example, the bad publicity which Zambia is presently experiencing globally is one of the manifestation of the ill-effects of this East-West conflict. Zambia will survive by being itself and, intelligently adapting by relating with all countries as it deems fit in a mutually beneficial way with each country for its people. War has broken out! Zambia must never abandon China. Any country that does that, abandons China that is, commits suicide. Even the American economy is today running in trillions of dollars on Chinese debt. Zambia should only refine its relationship with China so that it becomes truly symbiotic, mutually beneficial. At the moment China is doubly benefiting from through loan repayment to China, and our spending of the same loaned money on Chinese companies. For instance, instead of spending the borrowed money from China on Chinese companies, Zambia should increase expenditure of these funds on Zambian companies. Zambian contractors will never become proficient if we do not spend on them. Over time, the mistakes that they are making currently will lead to their improvement and becoming competitive on the international projects market. We must have faith in ourselves. In the end, it is Zambians themselves who will develop Zambia.