🔻 The Dragon in the Mirror: China’s Role in Africa’s New Colonialism

🔻 The Dragon in the Mirror: China’s Role in Africa’s New Colonialism

By Javier Clemente Engonga™ | World War News | 2025

They said colonization was over.
They said the empire had fallen.
They said Africa was finally free.

But the empire did not fall. It changed shape.

Where the West once came with gunboats and crosses, now the East arrives with contracts and cables. Where Europe once redrew our maps with blood, China now builds roads that lead straight into our future—and claims the tolls forever.

While the Western empires perfected overt domination through violence and racial supremacy, China has mastered the silent art of infiltration, cloaked in the language of "win-win cooperation" and "South-South solidarity."

But a snake in the grass doesn't hiss.
It whispers.

▪ Debt as the New Chain

Across the continent, Beijing presents itself as a benevolent partner. Bridges, stadiums, railways, and ministries spring up overnight—built not for African autonomy, but for long-term debt dependence.

From Zambia’s copper belts to Angola’s oil fields, from Kenya’s SGR railway to Djibouti’s port fortress, African sovereignty is being slowly collateralized. Strategic assets are the bargaining chips. When the debt comes due, Beijing does not forgive. It acquires.

This is not assistance.
It is acquisition.

▪ Surveillance Under the Banner of Progress

In Africa’s cities, Chinese cameras see everything. Their surveillance systems, exported in sleek boxes with no user manual, are deployed not to protect the people—but to monitor them. Regimes purchase these tools to silence dissent, preempt protest, and extend authoritarian control.

In Equatorial Guinea, China’s famed policy of “non-interference” is exactly the kind of interference dictators prefer—the kind that keeps them in power as long as they stay open for extraction.

▪ Ghost Towns and Phantom Partnerships

Many of China's grand projects in Africa are built to fail—not to function. Roads that crumble in the rain. Hospitals with no staff. Universities without books. Ports with no ships. The goal is not development, but dependence. Each failure justifies a new loan. Each dependency deepens the grip.

We do not speak Mandarin.
But our contracts are written in it.

▪ The Myth of Multipolar Salvation

The myth is seductive:
That China will save Africa from the West.
That multipolarity means freedom.

But China is not here to liberate Africa. It is here to replace the West’s grip with its own. A dragon is not a dove just because it doesn't wear boots.

When Lumumba was assassinated, it was the CIA and Belgian hands that pulled the trigger.
Today, no bullets are needed.
Just infrastructure bids, closed-door deals, and debts that outlive governments.

▪ The Return of Memory

Africa does not need new empires.
Not with new accents.
Not with new flags.

We need memory.

We need to remember that freedom is not a loan. Sovereignty is not an MoU. A liberated Africa cannot be subcontracted.

▪ Conclusion: She Is the Player

Africa is not a chessboard for Beijing or Brussels.
She is the player.
The memory-bearer.
The future-architect.

And no matter how silent the theft, Africa remembers everything.

🛰️ Javier Clemente Engonga™
President – Pan African Democratic Movement™
Founder – Digital Republic of Equatorial Guinea™
Publisher – World War News™
🔗 www.worldwarnews.online