China likes to claim that Africa, and more specifically, Ethiopia is their new china (a colloquial term for friend), just like Europe claimed many years ago. Ethiopia has a large, labour-hungry population. It has an agricultural society that’s just yearning for industry and is a sound investment overseas for China.
In many ways, Ethiopia is meant to be China’s example country in Africa and their new form of imperialism, infrastructure, is traded for control of said colonialism. Ethiopia’s leaders are happy to have a new world power to play off against the West and Russia.
In return, for a few billion in investment, the People’s Republic of China expect to have bought a supportive vote in the UN, a debtor to buy their goods and a future population to work in their their factories.
In short, China’s china.
For the most part, this has all been welcomed by the Ethiopian government. Investment is investment, and this is not a
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