- [Johnny] It's January
2017 at the headquarters of the African Union here in Ethiopia. An I.T. engineer is looking at
the servers in this building and something seems off. The engineer notices that often
in the middle of the night, these servers are connecting
to some server in Shanghai and uploading emails and audio files. The African Union Headquarters
was built in 2012. But it was not paid for
by any African nation. - [Reporter] The
impressive new headquarters of the African Union entirely funded by the Chinese government. - This building was a $200 million gift from the Chinese government. It was designed and built by Chinese firms with Chinese money. And yes, the servers were
installed by Chinese engineers who, it appears, left
an intentional backdoor into the servers so that
they were easily accessible. The African Union I.T. team eventually removed these Chinese servers
and installed new ones. The Chinese government literally offered to install them for
them, but they declined. The local I.T. people
also swept the building and they found microphones embedded in the furniture
and in the walls. The whole building was bugged
and it had been feeding audio and internal emails to
China for like five years since the building was built. China building a headquarters
for the African Union and then spying on it
is a pretty good symbol of what China is up to in Africa. And that's what this video is about. It's about how a growing
China has rushed into Africa mainly by building a bunch of stuff, roads, trains, dams, mines, ports. These projects are a part of
China's growth as a superpower. And it shows how this country
is projecting its power on the continent of Africa. - [Reporter 2] There are questions here over why the headquarters of such an important African organization is entirely the work of the Chinese construction,
labor, and money. - Okay, so there's this
very predictable thing that you see time and time
again as countries get powerful. As a country gets rich, they
often start looking outward both economically and militarily. Let me explain what I mean here. 50 years ago, China
was a very poor country with a huge population. But eventually, they
opened up to the world. They opened up their huge
population as a workforce for cheap labor and
their economy exploded. - [Reporter 3] China's
agrarian, urbanizing fast. You betcha. But still agrarian. - Most, in terms of land, not population. - Come on, Michael. - No, no. You're wrong about this. - So now, China is a very rich country. And remember, rich countries
start looking outward. How can they project their power, connect with other countries
to continue their growth? They do this for a couple of reasons. The first one is the economic reason. In the same way that the U.S.
got really rich and prosperous and started to look outward
to China for cheap labor, China also got rich and it's
labor eventually got expensive, wages went up. And China needed its own
option for cheap labor and new growth opportunities. So they started pouring
huge amounts of money, like $300 billion huge, into Africa. (rhythmic music) Okay, so that's the economic reason. China grows really fast. Their growth is slowing down. So they need to invest
in "emerging economies" is what the economists would call it. Economies that haven't
developed very quickly yet. But that with a little bit of investment, could start to grow. Untapped markets. But the economic explanation
is only half the story here. In China, economics and government power are not very separate. So to understand what
China is really up to, you have to understand
the geopolitical motives. And to do that, we got to look at the map. Here are all the countries
that China has projects in. And yes, I just highlighted
every single country on the African continent. I mean, besides this one down here, this little tiny country of Swaziland. They're the one holdout on all of this. These projects range from
transportation projects like roads and trains to energy like oil and dams to real estate projects
like housing developments and then mining for things like copper. You have everything from
a shoe factory in Ethiopia to a $6 billion Chinese
finance to dam in Nigeria to a massive suspension
bridge in Mozambique, the longest in Africa. I mean, these projects are everywhere. Even here on this tiny
island off the coast where China has poured
millions of dollars to build housing, a stadium, an
auditorium, a library, as well as their national
parliament, try to build it all. There are too many of these
projects to even count. And honestly, if you take it as a whole, a lot of these projects
have been a major benefit and economic stimulus to
these countries' economies. But why is China doing this? What are they up to? Well, in addition to
all the economic value of investing in emerging markets, China's president also claims
that they're doing this in the name of cooperation and friendship. (Xi Jinping speaking in Chinese) "The African way." Let's dig into this and actually see what these projects look
like and how they are built. And if it truly is "the African
way", whatever that means. Okay, so there's this really
impressive rail system that China built in Kenya. It goes from Nairobi to Mombasa
in just under four hours, which is faster than any
train in the United States. Which, let's be honest here,
isn't really saying much because here in the United States, we don't really know how
to build trains anymore. We used to be really good
at it and now we're not. It's kind of a shame and... Oh. Anyway, look at this train in Kenya. (rhythmic music) This railway system was
a $3.6 billion project, the most expensive infrastructure project since Kenya's independence. And it was mostly entirely paid for by a giant loan from
China's state run bank. So it was financed by China,
designed by Chinese engineers, and then built by Chinese
construction firms that sent Chinese workers to hire locals and manage the project. And now, it's a Chinese company that actually runs the thing. If you ride this train, you're gonna see all of
the safety announcements and all of the documentation
in Chinese, in Mandarin. It is very clear who financed
and built this thing. It looks like China just parachuted in and plopped this thing down in Kenya. And now, Kenya has
billions of dollars of debt that they have to pay
back to China eventually. In fact, 72% of all of
Kenya's debt is owed to China. And this railway was
meant to reduce congestion on the highway that runs parallel to it, but it hasn't done that. In fact, this railway cuts right through like these two national parks. - [Reporter 2] While the
train will offer passengers a view of a lifetime while passing through the national park,
conservationists are concerned that this construction
will affect the ecosystem and the wildlife that live here. - And it's actually not doing what it said it was going to do. So yes, Kenya has this big shiny railway but it wasn't really solving African issues in the African way. Meanwhile, the Chinese
construction workers who came to build this thing were caught treating the
local workers very poorly, making them sit at separate
tables during meal breaks, punishing them when they
didn't complete deadlines or take out the garbage on time. That mixed with the fact that
some of these Chinese workers were taking bribes as a part
of a huge corruption scheme with this railway. And it's clear that this project wasn't actually about supporting
the local environment. It just left Kenya with
a giant pile of debt and a big shiny railway. But listen, that's not always the case. There are tons of these projects and some of them are
truly helping the locals like this big, beautiful,
shiny road here in Lesotho. This used to be a rough gravel road and it is now a beautiful, shiny road that is helping the locals
move around in their country. So it's definitely a mixed bag. And listen, I get it. China, you want to give a $5 billion loan to Nigeria to build a dam because Nigeria has 200 million
people, many of them young. And you want to help them
become a booming economy so that you can get in
on some of that growth. Oh, and you love the fact
that you don't have to adhere to any environmental standards while you're doing these projects, which I know you love, China. I know it. That's the business rationale. We're looking for new
economies to invest in and be a part of their growth. But if you look a level deeper, you won't just see a bunch
of investment projects. You'll see a bunch of
free gifts from China. And I'm intrigued by
especially the political ones. Like when China shows up and builds like a new parliament building which they've done for
seven countries in Africa. Or when China offers
32 million free dollars to build the new headquarters for ECOWAS which is basically the economic
union in Western Africa. They do this for free. We will build you a new headquarters. (sighs) Well, let me be clear. There is no such thing as a free gift in international relations. Everything has strings attached. So a major part of all of
this investment in Africa is China investing in its
future as a global superpower who needs to have friends and has, historically,
not had a lot of friends throughout the world because the big boy United
States has been doing all the friending by giving people stuff and making their lives better
so that they can be allies. So China is getting in on this. And China has used their
checkbook to make friends with literally every
single country in Africa. Of course, besides Swaziland, the teeny little country in the south that has been the one country that has held out on all of this. In funneling all of this
money into these countries, China has been able to get
all of these countries, besides Swaziland, to not
recognize Taiwan anymore and to support China instead. The TLDR on that is that you
can't support Taiwan and China 'cause they both think that they're China. So you have to support one or the other. And so, China has been getting
everyone to denounce Taiwan and say that they support China. That's a whole other thing.
I'm making videos about that. Suffice it to say that China
has been using its checkbook to get all of these people
to be their friends. It's sort of like the
rich kid in middle school who, like, brings you an MP3 player because he wants you to be his friend. And you're like, "Sweet. If
you give me your MP3 player, I'll be your friend." I grew up in the early 2000's. In my middle school,
there were MP3 players. So, sorry for the throwback. But remember when China built
the African Union Headquarters and then bugged the entire building so that they could spy on the leaders and their emails and their conversations? That is a perfect representation of the strings that are usually
attached to these projects. But perhaps the less obvious but more dangerous strings
attached are the debts. (upbeat music) John Adams said it best
when he said, quote, "There are two ways to
conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword and
the other is by debt." It's a pretty intense quote,
but it really applies here. So many of these projects have been paid for by
Chinese money through loans. African nations diving deep into debt. We all know that when
you owe someone money, that person has a lot of power over you. Especially if you get to the point where you can't pay them back. And this isn't just theoretical. A few years ago, China
helped Sri Lanka build a port here in the Southeastern coast. It was done with a Chinese loan. With time, Sri Lanka struggled
to pay back that loan. So in 2017, China swooped in and said, "Can't pay back your debt? No worries. Just lease us this port. Let
us have it for 99 years." And Sri Lanka's like,
"That doesn't sound great. Giving a piece of our
sovereign territory to China which they could potentially
use for military. But, we are in so much
debt and they're offering to relieve some of that debt
if we give them this port. (sighs) Okay." So this port now belongs in part to China. This sets a dangerous
precedent that could be applied to many of these nations in Africa who have sunk themselves
deep into debt with China and may not be able to
pay it back in the future. So China is growing and honestly behaving like any superpower would when they are growing this quickly. I mean, if we wanted to make a video about how the U.S. has projected
power throughout the years, it would be a lot worse of a video, okay? So let's just make it clear
that China is a superpower. They're doing their superpower thing. This is very normal superpower behavior. Doesn't make it right. It just makes it very normal and typical. China has taken a specific
interest in Africa which has led to countless
infrastructure projects which have been, honestly,
an impressive sight to behold but has raised questions of what are the actual motives here. They're not just business and economic. And the bigger question that I want to keep an
eye on going forward is how is all this debt gonna play out? How will African nations who
are so deeply indebted to China have to service that debt in the future? And what will happen if
they can't pay it back? Okay, before you go,
I wanna tell you about the sponsor of today's video, ExpressVPN. The way that I think about a VPN is like you can connect to the internet but you can route it
through different countries. So whatever site you're on, doesn't think you're in the country. You're in, it thinks you're
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I'm sitting in my house here in the United States. The other thing I use ExpressVPN for is usually when I'm traveling, which I haven't done in a while, but I'm starting to travel again. And I will be using
ExpressVPN when I travel. Because like when I'm in France and I want to log into my email, I don't want Gmail to
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sponsoring this video. Thank you all for being here and for listening to this
story about China and Africa. I've wanted to make it
for a really long time. And honestly, I'm interested in making more videos about China. Not just about, like, Chinese
aggression and all of that which I think is a very
American centric way to think about China. But like, the real deal with China and, like, what China is actually up to. It's a rising power. China's gonna be a major part of our world for many years to come. And I really wanna understand it. As I understand it, I will
be sharing that all with you. So have a good day and I will see you very
soon in the next video.
Saw this and was wondering - If China has done so much to Afrian Union HQ which they constructed - Imagine what they are capable of with land they create!
Almost every major city in the world has a China Town - Colombo will be the first to have a "China City".
Looks like we'd be changing our name to Xi Lanka or Chi Lanka!
I mean we’re already seeing the impact of the imposition of Mandarin as that YouTuber showed in Kenya...
Sri Lanka became an example to the world of Chinese debt trap diplomacy with the Hambantota fiasco. It’s a pity that we ourselves don’t seem to have learned a lesson.
It's going to be worse. They're re already skirting the law with port city
I read recently that the Sri Lankan Debt trap thing was really real because only 5% of Sri Lankan fiscal burden came from the Hambantota port and Chinese loans
*Happened
Srilanka is officially a Chinese province...
Oh boy... u think that it ain't happening rn in this very moment? XD
For example: Think whatever a thing you want. There is a big probability that it is already in SL market, and most probably manufactured by China. How do they keep up the supply to the trend? Big data! US n EU also use big data, why aren't they much in the game? Less sources of big data than China. What are they extra sources China has? Exactly! (Just a shower thought)
Who knows what the port city holds in store for us. cant wait to find out how China fucks up Chi Lanka :D
Fuck