Happy holidays and hope you all can spend some time with family. Enjoy this extra long video treat and don’t forget to check out Brilliant, which would make a great last minute gift and/or project for your winter holiday: brilliant.org/polymatter 🎄

In my country (Rwanda, in Africa) we have the benefit of a ruthlessly efficient government. Part of that, is making really good deals with China. Part of the deal is Chinese firms need their workers to have a Rwandan majority. As Africans we can't really blame China when they give us bad deals. Europe and America give us much worse deals all the time. That's just how capitalism works. No one is out for our best interests, they just want a slice of the most resource rich continent on the planet. We need to look to our governments to make better deals. That's my take.

South African here. I think I can add something. If you're into history, you should consider making a video about South Africa's apartheid regime. Many people don't know that the US, the UK, France and Italy continued to support and sell arms to the South African apartheid government despite a UN embargo. This fuelled a 26 year war against African liberation movements in Southern Africa, which is referred to as the South African Border War. The result was that the apartheid regime in South Africa protected western assets from the native Africans going back since colonial times. The fear was that the "communists" would come in and take over control since African liberation movements were mostly supported by Russia, China and Cuba. So, the US, the UK, France and Italy were basically supporting an extremely racist and oppressive regime in order to continue exploiting African countries. In a nutshell, that's why we rather do business with China. We see it as the lesser of evils. Most African governments don't trust Western countries because countries like the US, the UK, France and Italy "secretly" supported apartheid, and exploited Africans for centuries. When I say "secretly", I do so sarcastically. It was all well documented in research journals, where you'll get the actual truth instead of Western news media rubbish. These are obviously facts most people in the West prefer to conveniently filter out from their narrative when they go on about how much they are concerned about Africans. They don't really care. Western governments and industries just don't want anyone else to get in on their action because they would like to assume that every other culture has the the same exploitative and cruel intentions than them. So, when they criticise countries like China, I tend to rather look at it as Freudian projection. So, when they talk about China on CNN, Fox, DW or the BBC, I know that it's mostly their corporate insecurities feeding that narrative. They hardly ever give you "the news." It's corporate propaganda and little else.

That’s SIMPLE. China didn’t force Africa to choose it as its investor. If other countries are complaining about China’s threat in controlling Africa, go offer Africans better deals and help them develop better future than China did.

"Of course it is a debt trap, we have done it hunderds of times before. "said USA

Sir. I came here for anti-china propaganda, not objective analysis. How dare you.

This video is everything, as a Kenyan many in my country keep talking about the debt trap, when it is the leaders looting these loans & putting us in the trap. The projects that have been successfully completed have greatly changed peoples lives & boosted the economy to the top 5 in AFRICA. While there are lingering issues to do with Chinese employment practices, the money provided is invaluable Thank you China

US military bases in Africa: 29 Chinese military bases in Africa: 0 Russian military bases in Africa: 0 Who would you trade with?

In China, the government still like to remind the people how the African nations helped them to get a permanent seat in UN back in 1971. China loves Africans, after all they suffered a lot from colonization. Yes, colonizers not settlers. Oh by the way, it's called bribing, not lobbying.

Great video. I actually made a summary of the Sri Lankan Hambantota port for my friends and family. Here it is... 1. The Port still belongs to Sri Lanka. China paid over one billion USD to LEASE and operate it for 99years, and they don't have full control. Sri Lanka still has a stake in this venture. 2. Sri Lanka has more LOANS with Japan AND World Bank, than they do with China. Why don't we ever hear of a Japanese "debt trap"? 3. The Hambantota Port was built by Chinese firms in 2007. But even before China got involved, in 2003 the Canadian Devt Agency financed a feasibility study and said there is good potential since the Colombo Port nearby was operating at FULL capacity. With China and Asia rapidly growing, prospects for a new port are sound. In 2005 another feasibility study was conducted by the DANISH, and they said same thing. Build another Port! 4. In 2006 after the Danish feasibility study, Sri Lanka approached BOTH India and USA to build the port. They both DECLINED. Only then China approached Sri Lanka. Construction began in 2007, 6 years before Xi Jinping's One Belt One Road project was even launched. 5. Phase One of the Port construction finished on time after 3 years, but the Sri Lanka President was too aggressive. The Danish feasibility study taken in 2005 recommended they start slow and wait several years for business to ramp up, before expanding to phase two. Sri Lanka chose to go ahead anyway with the second phase. So they got another bigger loan from a Chinese bank at ONLY 2% interest. 6. With phase two now completed, and after afew short years of losing money, Sri Lanka realised they needed more experienced operators, which was what the Canadian Agency recommended way back in 2003. That's when they signed the operator deal with China in 2017, but Sri Lanka still kept a minority stake in the operational ownership. There was NEVER default. The port still belongs to Sri Lanka. 7. Of the External Overseas debt payments Sri Lanka is burdened with, only 5% is related to the Hambantota Port. The biggest burden is the crushing Sovereign Bonds Sri Lanka issued at 8% interest rate. This alone comprises 40% of their total external Debt Burden. Totally unrelated to China.

The main issue I have is the terms of the construction project. In my country (in Africa), most of the projects have terms that require an almost 7:3 ratio of Chinese workers compared to local workers. You can clearly see why this can cause an issue because local talent is not generated since most of the work is done by Chinese workers and the local community doesn’t acquire most positive economical externalities (i.e salary) from having a project in your backyard. Because of this unbalance, majority of the loan is redirected towards the Chinese economy and not the local one because Chinese workers are the main beneficiary and the cash flow recirculates toward back to China. EDIT: PLEASE read the whole thread, I answered a lot of questions that keep getting repeated. Thank you.

I really think that the Chinese policy of infrastructure creation is a great way ahead for developing and poor nations. Because of Chinese interest strategy, now even western countries are thinking hard about changing their approach. Otherwise we know that western countries only ever supplied arms not infrastructure. Whatever the Chinese interest behind it, it is indirectly helping us by pressuring other powers to do the same

When USA and IMF came offering 'Aid' to us, I feel worry. When China came offering 'Debt' to us to build massive and important infrastructure project, I feel having great opportunity to grow. Love from Indonesia to The Rising Dragons, People's Republic of China ❤🇮🇩🇨🇳

Hambantota port is not a debt trap set by China. Sri Lankans have been talking about building the Hambantota port near the main Indian Ocean shipping lane since the 1920s. Between 2006 and 2007, the Sri Lankan government sought financing from India and Japan, but was rejected because India did not want to support a project that could compete with its home port, while Japan was already Sri Lanka's largest bilateral creditor.

This was a great vid. Your final comments on logical and consistent criticisms are a huge takeaway. We all need to use critical thinking to decipher the propaganda both ways.

Since when, the west started caring about African's life?

Calling this Neo colonialism only serves the purpose to delude what colonialism really was.

First video to accurately describe China's relationship with Africa. If I can use my country of Kenya as an example, the previous president was decent and the loans were used constructively. The current president is incompetent and Kenya is nearing debt distress. It's all about who borrowed the loan, for which project and how the project is implemented.

It's funny how they are talking about china's debt trap but African countries have been on European and imfs debt trap

I bursted out when you call India the closest rival of China

Wow, I thought China's policy was really a "Debt trap", whereas the real problem is that the borrower country doesn't manage money well. Thanks for the great video and subtitles.

I remember reading in the Economist about one official complaining that the Chinese were becoming like the IMF after they started getting stricter with their lending requirements cause of the failed projects which made me laugh a bit.

Weatern countries accusing China of colonialism is quite ironic

Success is dependent on the actions or steps you take to achieve it. Show me a man who doesn't have an investment, and i will tell you how soon he will go broke. Investment is building a safe heaven for the future. With the right choice of Investment that has at least 1% minimum risk and with an expert guidance, profit and Intrest is 100% guaranteed.

As a matter of fact, China helps developing countries only to develop alliances, and China needs them to help China speak out internationally. Just as the United States also has such staunch allies as Europe, Japan and South Korea.

I love the fact that when Polymatter did so many video criticizing China and made just one video which is not, people are crying Chinese Propaganda in the comment section. This just show how powerful American propaganda is. It makes people believe that talking objectively about things America doesn’t like is others’ propaganda and only talking “American propaganda” about them is talking the truth. It’s too hard for human mind to thinking dialectically.

I am a kenyan. I have watched several explainer videos about China in Africa (From western youtubers and media). This one is the best. It doesn't really venerate nor despise China's prescence here. It seeks to inform and that's much better. The west would rather have us poor and colonised (fooled). China has really helped many grow from poverty here. We are doing fine. Should we not be able to payback the loans, well, we shall at least type this in Chinese---in a chinese computer! Like this one i'm using already.

If the US did this the title would be "How the Great Satan Uncle Sam is Building an Evil Neo Colonialist Empire"

Was expecting anti-China propaganda but I'm pleasantly surprised.

I'm really happy to see actual African comments, instead of western stories, rank to the top when we are talking about African issues

''The dangers of criticizing China for the wrong reason is that it would is that it reduces credibility when you need it the most''. A simple spot-on sentence that explains what the world needs right now: nuances. Criticism is due when it is due, but we cant let it dictate our perspectives about the larger schemes in international relations. In today's overflow of anti-china publications, China's value to the world is being downscaled for political victories which will eventually hurt everyone's harmony towards a better future.

As long as you have a little brain cells, you won't believe in debt trap

🇱🇰 here 🙋 If you are wondering why there are so many un-efficient infrastructure projects in Hambantota, you shoud get to know the narrow minded Rajapaksa family. Mahinda Rajapaksa former president of SL had a dream to make Hambantota as the capital of SL because Hambantota is where he was born and raised. That is why he made all those things. Original plan of Hambantota port was to make a fuel station for ships. After profiting from it, next phase was to create shipping docks. But he couldn't wait to see if thing could go forward. He did it all. Rest is history. This port never profited during all this time or at least couldn't balance the expenses. But Rajapaksa family gave too many jobs there for their political supporters. Rajapaksa family is extremely corrupted. From their inner circle to local thugs in villages, everyone is bonded with corruption. During his presidency he doubled(700k to 1.4M) government jobs by filling it with his supporters. Gotabaya Rajapaksa the current president also started his term with giving 100k government jobs. I think no one in the whole world dare to challenge Rajapaksa family in corruption. 🙆

For years I was told by the media and believed that Chinese investments are little more than neo-colonialist bribes in exchange for power. Then I went to Kenya and was blown away by how positive the locals are about Chinese rail and road construction bringing high quality transport and jobs to this developing nation. A lot of the new appartments and other developments bringing Nairobi into the 21st century are also funded by Chinese developers.

I only heard of railway construction in Africa. This is benefitting massively, it creates infrastructure, which makes it for the first time possible, to transport locally produced goods to more distant market places. This will pay itself back as the economy grows just by the use.

Context, remember, context. What colonization did to India, China, rest of Asia, Africa & South America in the last century. Most of these countries were victims of very understated trauma. No bad deals can be worse that being under oppression and systemic inequity by fascists.

As someone who is anti-CCP, I think it's a great disservice to assess China based on narratives. To truly combat their growing Chinese influence especially in Africa, the West needs to correctly assess the situation and implement the most appropriate solutions. Also, to China's credit, the West has been passively aggressively putting Africa down for decades (the unfair decolonization practices is a great example of this unfair treatment).

The US has been doing these maneuvers for years. Funny how we have bases everywhere. I mean, everywhere. The irony is thick.

So some people here think he's sponsored by the CCP and is producing propaganda while some think he is criticizing China and revealing it's dark secrets. I really don't think there can be such a large difference in interpretation if everyone actually watched everything. People just start arguing when they say "China". I am no supporter of the CCP but just posting "Tiananmen Square" for nothing really is stupid.

this is the truth about sri Lanka because I'm sri Lankan and I can feel it exactly

I used to work for a Chinese company that helped build power grids in Africa。We wish to provide more steady supply of power but there are many problems .The corrupt and the poor efficiency，and hostile environment. In fact with higher labor cost and dely of time limit,this project has no profit for us.

I was taught about this in university this semester and they emphasized the "Debt-Trap" theory as if it was a concrete fact, so hearing that independent researches couldn't find any solid evidence to prove it kind of highlights the bias of North American universities.

Reading the comments I’m quite surprised to see that most of your audience only watched the first 3 min of the video… Great work as always, a complicated subject approached with nuance!

I think "buying" diplomacy is also a big factor. Most majority-Muslim nations supported an explicitly atheist government "cleansing" its country of what they called an Islamic "mental illness". It doesn't seem like a conspiracy that they did this in hopes of gaining favors from them in the future.

I need a car as living tool. But no banks willing to borrow money to me or charged a high interest. Later a good friend borrowed me money with low interest to realize my dream and my living conditions improved. But I started to hear rumours that my friend was trying to harm me and made me into dept trap. 🤣

Thanks for providing a factual, logical and objective outlook on these controversial issues. It's a shame a lot of people here seem to be only interested in having their biases reinforced, and I say this as someone who is very critical of China.

TRULY fantastic. Gets into the murky, well-researched truth, rather than seeing the world in blacks and whites. Loved how you framed the beginning of the video in the "Good vs Evil" way that 99% of people do, then showed that you respect your audience enough to really get into detail. Loved the numeric analysis, like the percentage calculation of countries which could sustainably absorb such debt.

I feel like a lot of people didnt get through the first five minutes before disliking or commenting

Even if it were true, in China it's called conspiracy. The only purpose of a country is to prosper its people and it cannot be completely selfless to other countries. A good government will find ways to achieve win-win, but it is difficult to do it every time. In this regard, China has done its best, and we have to admit that people have flaws, but at least we have not harmed others and not ourselves.

As a Chinese, I have to say, yes we are making money out of African people’s pocket, but during the business, we also build many factories, shops, schools, railways, highways in Africa to help African countries able to buy more products, African people also can enjoy all the cheap and relatively reliable products. African people are not stupid, if those westerners could offer better deals, I believe African people will choose those westerners. Before you blame China, think about what did you do in Africa? Colonisation? Killing? Slaves?

As a Sri Lankan, I have to say that you pretty much got everything right when it comes to the Sri Lanka. The leasing of Hambantota Port (you got the pronunciation right btw so kudos to that) took place due to the culmination of many different factors. It wasn't as simple as China purposefully lending funds to build the port so later they could take over it. The debt-trap narrative like any other typical western narrative misses context and fails to realize that each country has its own different and unique circumstances. Also, the Hambanthota port isn't as bad as many claim it to be. The port is actually doing quite well as a ro-ro transshipment hub and is expanding a lot as we speak. Anyway, great job on a deconstructing a biased run-of-the-mill western narrative with half-truth through objective analysis.

I think China and Africa have been got benefit from the infrastructure construction in Africa. The railway construction is useful for related country.

Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours. They will have money to lend you, but you will have no one to lend them. In the end, they will be your rulers. Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Chinese have carried so many projects in my country kenya and I have not seen that huge Chinese workforce you are talking about infact Chinese projects have created Kenyan millionaires in terms of supplying materials, infact when they build our only SGR 30% of material was locally sourced

So apparently, saying that China's "debt trap" thing might not be what many people think makes him a Chinese propaganda guy? Things are just getting so polarized

I love how the end of the video basically says chinas master mind plan is secretly just "Build shit, ?????????, PROFIT!"

No idea why anyone would be surprised at Africa accepting Chinese financial aid. Europe had hundreds of years of colonialism and had horrible, horrible European leaders like the Belgian Congo. Then the whole post to neo-colonialism that the US jumped in to try and stem Soviet influence.

This is a refreshing and more unbiased take on the issue, we’ll done!

An unbiased and well-researched video on this topic. It's rare to find, since so much slant is given to a paradigm that can be given a political bias. Thank you for educating us as always, PolyMatter

There's a weird fixation on China in western media. France still imposes a colonial tax on the majority of it's "former" African colonies but yet that's never mentioned.

China help them to develop infrastructure. But how they market and make the infrastructure work for the country is entirely up to their own government as China has no control of it

I've heard the "debt trap diplomacy" narrative so often -- it's nice to hear an alternative explanation.

When the 30 years war ended Sri Lanka immediately needed investments for developing its infrastructure. Only China came forward at that time. After all, Sri Lankahas become the most developed nation in entire South Asia with highest HDI in the region.

Put aside all guesswork and projections. Let's talk about the facts: China has never had any overseas colonies in history, while the United States has the world's largest overseas military base and has provoked many wars around the world, including the Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Vietnam War, etc. . And China has never initiated any war on its own initiative. In the video, the facts of China's aid to African countries are not discussed, but instead maliciously smear and spread rumors that China is trying to build military bases in Africa. This is really ridiculous and pointless😅

Well,all I can say about it is that we shouldn’t underestimate China

" The less you say, the more intimidating and powerful you are. Always say less than necessary. When you do speak, make it vague and ambiguous, leaving the meaning to others to interpret. *They’ll be frustrated and obsessed with trying to figure you out.* " - Law n°4 of _The 48 Laws of Power_ , by Robert Greene.

In Africa, the westerners did what they never do in their own country, while Chinese is doing what they just did in their own country.

"Africa is not a country" spitting some hard facts

I am in Yunnan, one of the provinces in China. You know what, the capitalism, the formal European countries still had a deep impact on us. Coffee is still the supporting industry here. We used to grow coffee for the European countries (French for example), and Starbucks, Nestlé, are still using the material for a low price. Not just this, luxury brands like Channel, Hermes, their products are still using our materials for low prices as well, but no western media report the farmers' life here. In my hometown, there still remain French style buildings and French railways. How dare they, how audacity they are to say China is a threat?

As a Hong Kong citizen, I am very proud of the achievements of China.

As a Chinese, I like this topic. I want to share my idea with you. At 10 years ago, many Chinese talks about why we invest in African events not use this money in China west? The reason is that we make money from world trade is US Doller, it's can't invest into China directly, will make economic expansion. So how to use this money? China's government investing in other countries is a good idea. Why China does not invest in Europe or NA? Because China is still a developing country we produce steel and cement, Africa needs these. We build roads and bridges for the world to promote local development. Like some motorcycle riders complain the train which built by China occupied their market, it's unreasonable. China as an investor, we just only want to make more money, the politics benefit not the first goal!

USA, a country that has borrowed 3 trillion dollars from China, is warning other countries of chinese "debt trap" 😂

When half the comments are calling it Chinese propaganda and the other half are calling it American propaganda, you know you're right in the middle

5:43 a kid slips and falls down in the back of the class and another throws a piece of paper at him while he is down.

I highly recommend the book The Bad Samaritans. It is written by a Korean Professor who discusses how western world helps the third world countries and does not yield the result they intended. It might sound counter-intuitive, given that they donate vast amounts every year, and they mostly are from good intentions for sure. But as a Korean economist, he had the unique opportunity to explore and analyse elements that were vital to Korean economy. Korea was only 1 step ahead of China after all (in economic development stages) China has the capital and the willingness to replicate that success in other countries. They need return of course, and they put up with corruption, but they should be criticised for what they are. Not for some conspiracy. I love how random commenter in YT have such influence on people's understanding and opinions.

I just love this. An American criticising China for applying the debt as a weapon strategy that the US govt has been perfecting for 70 years, the main tool of which is now called the IMF. Your entire country is built on cheap resources obtained through countries that are enslaved by the IMF (a bunch of very ancient banking families now US based).

Finally a China video that's at least somewhat balanced and not just rabid propaganda.

I find the fact that people are accusing this of being simultaneously pro and anti Chinese propaganda to be amusing.

It's refreshing to watch a balanced video about this, in the middle of abundance amount of propagandist KZfaqrs here pushing their narratives and killing people's critical thinking. Thank you for doing this, I truly appreciate your works.

China: All of Africa Recognizes Me China: Wait I Am Missing A Peace Eswatini: I Recognize Taiwan Over Ch-

Nonsense, China only accounted for $6.5 billion in Sri Lanka's debt crisis of more than $51 billion. What other countries are they? Why only choose China to talk about? ? ? Double standard!

Mrbeast said in a video with Marques Brownlee you were one of his favorite channels, keep up the great work!

As a Chinese I am impressed. This is THE FIRST TIME someone from a foreign contry on KZfaq explaining correctly about the Belt and Road Intiative. As said in the video, there is no definition of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, it’s just “You need infrastructure, we help you build”, that’s it. You want to ask what did China get from this? My guess is jobs and technology. Technically needs demand to develop. All the mega projects around the world provide such a great opportunity for China to test and develop its technology on infrastructure.

Just think about all the thing that UK France ... USA have done in Africa. Compare them with you high school world history class. you will know

While the CCP is nothing to praise - Chinese people got lucky with an authoritarian government which cared about improving the country instead of making government officials money. Countries in Africa don't have that, which is why it's failing

I love how the west is so quick to judge but ignores what NATO did to Libya and what the US did to Iraq and Venezuela

Just to be clear, the debt trap strategy is nothing new and has been used by the west in Africa to great effect. When I was growing up in Zambia, we spent the majority of our taxes and our GDP on servicing old debts. The West demanded direct political influence in addition to cheap raw materials. China has different goals and some differences in strategy but the overall plan of using monetary power to take advantage or poorer nations is not new. Even the trick of offering loans then demanding that most of the money actually goes back to the home country is not new. That has been the norm with western loans and 'aid' alike.

in the big picture, china is the big winner!

Your more nuanced take, other than "China is pure evil", is appreciated. Subbed.

What you failed to mention is that these Chinese projects are meant to give jobs to Chinese citizens. Even though the project is in Africa, the workers are always Chinese. So China earned a lot here because the African countries borrowed money from China to build infrastructure projects in their country but the project should be done by a Chinese company using Chinese workers. The money that China lent went back to China through the Chinese company and the Chinese workers but the African country now owes China the whole amount.

Look at Sri Lanka's economy now - the government has failed the people.

The British and Roman empires weren't planned out in advance. The lack of a plan doesn't mean much

US is so angry, how dare you step into China’s debt trap instead of mine.

This world is very complicated. There is never pure good or evil, but always a mix of the two. But there is a golden rule to understand this world: assess things happened by its benefit and cost (both tangible and intangible). That could explain vast majority of events happening.

It's called economic hitmen. America does this everywhere, all the time. There is a great book called " confessions of an economic hitman".

It is better for all Africans to take their own lives, but first for all Eritreans to start taking their own lives.

Much better than the truth about Europe in africa

The danger of making wrong criticism is that it makes it unconvincing when you are raising a real and valuable question.

You should see "The Myth of the Chinese Debt Trap in Africa" put out bu Bloomberg. I believe KZfaq has a recording.

The New Africa Channel has more truthful information.