When the likes of Macron, the head of an actually-existing neocolonial entity denounces Chinese “predatory logic”, it’s not a bad idea for so-called “leftists” to exercise due diligence.
In a recent article in the U.S. based online magazine Counterpunch, an editor accuses China of “green economic imperialism” in Africa and Latin America – alleging that Chinese investment in critical minerals and renewable supply chains amounts to a new form of colonial plunder.
The article is a remarkably timely reproduction of the argument made just days after French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, condemned China for operating with a “predatory logic” across the continent. As with all analysis, it pays to consider whose interests are served by its content and timing?
As Carlos Martineze points out, Macron made his Nairobi remarks at a summit explicitly designed to “rebuild French influence in Africa” after France’s humiliating expulsion from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. He spoke as the head of a former colonial power controlling a currency, the CFA franc, which is used to extract foreign-exchange reserves from 14 African states into a French Treasury account.
In the attached article, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez responds. He systematically shows that the argument pushed by Counterpunch rests on a series of substantive misrepresentations – about China’s energy transition, its mining operations, its lending practices, and the meaning of imperialism itself. Carlos Martineze convincingly debunks the Counterpunch claims – China Environment News recommends reading the rebuttal in full at the link below.
The function of the Counterpunch article, regardless of iany supposedly “left” intention, is to bolster an anti-China propaganda war being waged by the US ruling class. It serves to manufacture “left-wing” consent for a New Cold War whose objective is precisely to keep the Global South dependent on the West.
Read the full Friends of Socialist China rebuttal at:
