- [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?
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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.