China Never Colonized Africa

They say China is "colonizing" Africa. Interesting—because when the West “helps” Africa, it sends the IMF. When China helps, it cancels debt and builds railroads.

Over the past 20 years, China has poured billions into African development: roads, bridges, hospitals, power grids, ports. But instead of celebrating this, Western pundits shout “debt trap!”—as if anyone forgot who actually built the trap.

Here’s what they won’t tell you: China has canceled over $3 billion in debt for African countries since 2000, and restructured billions more. In 2022 alone, 17 African nations had interest-free Chinese loans forgiven. Compare that to the West’s so-called “relief,” which usually means endless conditions, privatization, and austerity.

China doesn’t force countries to cut school budgets or sell off water supplies just to get a loan. There are no IMF riot clauses. No regime change threats. No “do what we say or else.”

When the pandemic hit, China was the first to send vaccines to Africa—not hoard them. When droughts struck, it sent grain—not drone strikes.

China’s presence in Africa is material, not moralizing. It builds with steel and concrete, not sermons and sanctions. And that’s exactly what the West can’t stand.

Because when African leaders shake hands with Beijing, they aren’t just signing a trade deal. They’re rejecting 500 years of Western domination.

That’s why the media cries “neocolonialism”—because the old colonizers can’t stand losing their grip. But ask yourself: who has 29 military bases in Africa? Who dropped bombs on Libya and turned it into a slave market? Who flooded Africa with guns, austerity plans, and terrorism? It wasn’t China.

China supported African liberation. China trains engineers, not mercenaries. It cancels debt, not democracies. Africa is choosing its own future, and increasingly, it’s choosing China—not out of naïveté, but because the record speaks for itself. The West gave Africa chains. China gives infrastructure. The difference is not hard to see—unless you’re willfully blind.