Recently, according to a survey organized by YouGov in the United Kingdom, the positive impression of the mainland by African people is now significantly increasing.
Through interviews with people in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, the organization found that more than half of Africans believe that the continent is having a positive impact on many international affairs, including Africa's economic development.
The continent's great success and remarkable influence in Africa are very eye-catching to Western countries. They don't understand why China, which was poor in previous years, can receive so much support in Africa.
In fact, through the real case of a country, we can glimpse the truth. This country is Djibouti, a small East African country.
A small East African country struggling between the cracks
Djibouti is located in the eastern part of the African continent, with a land area of about 23,200 square kilometers, which is indistinguishable from the size of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, and the population will barely exceed 1 million in 2022.
On the scale of Djibouti, it is basically the level of a third-tier city in the mainland. Djibouti, on the other hand, is not only a small country and a small country, but its natural conditions are also quite harsh.
In fact, the name Djibouti itself already accurately summarizes the situation in the country. Because the name "Djibouti" means "boiling steamer" in the language of the indigenous Afar.
Due to its proximity to the Sahara Desert and the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti is subject to tropical desert pressure all year round, and the climate is extremely hot and dry. Djibouti has a complex land, most of which is volcanic plateau at an altitude of 500 to 600 meters, and deserts and volcanoes account for 90% of the country's area. Available arable land accounts for only 3% of the country's land area, and all living materials such as grain depend on imports.
In general, Djibouti is a small country with few natural resources. Except for a salt lake, the country basically has few high-quality resources to develop the secondary industry. And due to the climate and topography, agriculture is extremely backward, and there are no unique agricultural products to develop agricultural processing.
In 2015, the Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) classified Djibouti as a fourth-level country, a country with a low level of human development.
But it is such a barren land that can stir up the world situation for a while, all because of the country's extremely important geographical location.
Geographically, Djibouti is the "throat" connecting the two seas (Mediterranean and Red Sea), the two oceans (the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean) and the three continents (three continents in Asia, Europe and Africa).
First, Djibouti is located at the halfway point of the route from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and is the throat of the Suez Canal, an important trade route in Europe and Asia.
Most of the ships laden with cargo and ships travelling to and from the canal have to anchor at the port of Djibouti to resupply. Djibouti is therefore figuratively referred to as the "sentinel on the oil lane".
Second, Djibouti's location in the Horn of Africa provides easy access to inland areas such as North, Central and East Africa through modern means of transportation.
In the context of the division of North and South Sudan, the turbulent situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the ongoing civil war in Somalia and rampant piracy in China, Djibouti has become the "commanding height" of African security affairs today.
Third, Djiboub is across the sea from the Arabian Peninsula through the el-Mandeb Strait. From Djibouti to Yemen, the nearest one, the distance is only 30 kilometres in a straight line.
It can be said that mastering Djibouti has the possibility of interfering in the entire Arabian Peninsula and imposing offshore checks and balances. Since the discovery of oil, the Middle East has become a global energy production center and the focus of major power games, and the importance of Djibouti is needless to say.
The so-called "innocence and guilt" has always been the target of attempts by all parties because of its geographical location. However, this status of "stars holding the moon" has not brought prosperity to Djibouti, but neighboring countries and foreign forces have brought all kinds of pressure and unease to the country.
Since the "Great Geographical Discoveries" and the Industrial Revolution, the European powers have set off a frenzy to divide the world. Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America continue to become colonies of European countries, and tiny Djibouti is no exception.
Since the 16th century, Portuguese colonists have been harassing the coast of Djibouti.
By the middle of the 19th century, after repeated rivalries and concessions by European powers such as Britain, France and Italy, British and Italian colonists occupied northern and southeastern Somalia respectively. Djibouti, on the other hand, fell into the hands of France and officially became the capital of the "French Somali Coast".
Although Djibouti won independence in 1977, the country did not usher in calm and tranquility. Because the small East African country is under increasing pressure from its neighbors.
For Djibouti, the influence of neighboring powers far exceeds that of distant hegemonic powers. Djibouti is located in the Horn of Africa, between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.
Looking back in history, two major neighbours, Ethiopia and Somalia, have claimed territorial sovereignty over Djibouti, and Djibouti's security situation can be imagined.
Djibouti's three neighbours far surpass Djibouti in terms of territory, population and economic strength. Therefore, how to properly handle diplomatic relations with neighboring countries has become the most important issue for those in power in Djibouti.
In the early years of independence, Djibouti carefully maintained its neutral status between Ethiopia and Somalia's two powerful neighbors.
After the beginning of the Cold War, Africa gradually became a battlefield for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, and Ethiopia and Somalia repeatedly turned to the United States and the Soviet Union and confronted each other. In this case, Djibouti chose to follow the route of France, the former metropolis.
France has always been a relatively "strange" European country after World War II. France has always distanced itself from Britain and Germany, wandered between the United States and the Soviet Union, and pursued a relatively independent diplomatic line.
And because France has built a relatively complete political and economic system in the colonies, and there are also good armed forces in Africa, so France has a great influence on Africa.
Djibouti followed France in order to strike a balance between Ethiopia and Somalia. Because friendship with either side means offending the other neighbor and the Cold War power behind it, practicing "balance-of-power diplomacy" and taking the middle way is the safest strategy.
With the end of the Cold War, the geopolitical environment of the world has changed dramatically. Under the situation of the United States' monopoly, Djibouti once again exercised "balanced diplomacy" and "forged good relations", incarnated into the "world military camp", and took advantage of this to "lead the way" in turbulent East Africa and soar with strength.
The "World Military Camp" soared
Friends who are familiar with international news must know that there are many foreign military bases in Djibouti. Among the many foreign military bases, the French base is the largest.
After all, Djibouti was originally a French colony, and its geographical location was important, so it was reasonable for France to send troops here.
After consultation between the two sides, the French military presence in Djibouti has remained at about 2,000 troops a year, accounting for 33% to 50% of France's non-armed forces.
The army and air force of the Mediterranean Sea are fully equipped and are an important relay station for French military forces to maintain influence in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. To date, the Djibouti base is France's largest military stronghold abroad.
After entering the new century, the United States came to the fore in Djibouti. Behind this, on the one hand, there is Djibouti's political demand to introduce the United States to balance France and break away from its control; On the other hand, there is also the need for the United States to fight terrorism and expand its influence.
After the events of 11 September, the United States leased the Lemonnier military base in Djibouti for counter-terrorism and in the interests of mastering the Middle East. After years of use, it has become home to the U.S. "Africa Command" and its largest military base in Africa.
At present, more than 5,000 U.S. Army and Marine Corps are stationed at the base. At the same time, they deployed 46 fighters, air force transport aircraft and other equipment here.
With this base, the US military once again consolidated its control over the Middle East. Moreover, with Djibouti as a springboard, the United States has further projected its influence into the interior of Africa and stepped up its efforts to compete with Japan and France for strategic interests in Africa.
In addition, Japan has also infiltrated Djibouti through economic assistance. In 2009, the Japanese Navy's Self-Defense Forces built a naval base in Djibouti in the name of fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
It also became the only overseas base after Japan's defeat. Currently, about 180 Japan Navy Self-Defense Force members are stationed here, rotating every four months.
It is interesting to note that under the joint crackdown of countries around the world, Somali piracy has almost disappeared after 2012. In all of 2013, there were only seven pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, but Japanese bases remained.
It can be seen that the existence of the Japanese base in Djibouti is more for political purposes, and Japan uses this to test the attitude of various countries and pave the way for it to seek to restore normal statehood.
Compared with the careful planning of the base rental country, Djibouti's attitude towards foreign troops is more peaceful and "Buddhist". Although nicknamed the "World Military Camp", Djibouti uses this seemingly "lying flat" way of doing things to bring peace, stability and development opportunities to the country.
First, in terms of national security, the presence of troops abroad is an important force for maintaining peace and stability in Djibouti and the Horn of Africa.
After the Cold War, with the disintegration of the Soviet-Eastern bloc, the world did not become more peaceful.
Due to the power vacuum, regional forces compete for regional dominance, and the situation is more volatile. In the 90s of last century, with events such as the Somali civil war and the independence of Eritrea, armed conflicts and refugee flows continued to hit the "Horn of Africa".
As mentioned above, Djibouti's national strength is limited, and the size of the army is about 5,000 people. On the one hand, the state cannot afford to raise more troops; On the other hand, the existing forces are also unable to cope with large emergencies.
To keep the country independent from threats, bringing in external security forces is one of Djibouti's few options.
Judging from the results, the involvement of international forces has effectively promoted stability in East Africa. Because all countries have strategic interests here, the international community cannot sit idly by, for example, the Somali civil war and the Ethiopian-Eritrean border conflict.
As an important neutral country in the region, Djibouti has also used its position to dominate the security situation in the region to a certain extent.
For example, after the United Nations mediated the Somali civil war, Djibouti has actively participated in the peacekeeping mission of the AU army in Somalia. At present, Djibouti has 2,000 peacekeeping troops in Somalia.
Second, in terms of national development, foreign troops are allowed to finance national development.
Through the previous understanding of Djibouti's national conditions, we are well aware that Djibouti's economic hematopoietic capacity is limited.
More than 95% of domestic agricultural products and industrial products rely on imports, and the national economy is heavily dependent on the port industry, which accounts for 80% of the country's GDP. To sustain development, you can only rely on external forces, and foreign aid and the rent of military bases solve this problem.
According to statistics, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, France provided Djibouti with $380 million, accounting for 3% of Djibouti's GDP during that period. In addition, the French base currently generates 30 million US dollars in economic revenue for Djibouti every year, accounting for nearly 1% of Djibouti's national GDP in 2021.
And with the United States and Japan and other countries, Djibouti has also benefited a lot. In 2009 alone, Japan's assistance to Djibouti totaled $35 million.
The Ramonnier military base mentioned above is the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa, for which the United States needs to pay $63 million in annual rent.
Thanks to the huge additional benefits of renting military bases, Djibouti has grown rapidly in recent years. According to the evaluation of United Nations agencies, Djibouti's business service environment ranking has jumped to the "top spot" position in East Africa. Based on the country's own advantages and the experience of other advanced countries, Djibouti has also put forward its own development ideas in recent years.
In 2014, the Kyrgyzstan government issued the "Djibouti Vision 2035", hoping to develop into a logistics center, information center and financial center in East Africa in the next 20 years, and become the "Dubai" of East Africa.
But if you want to develop the port industry and financial industry, the country needs strong infrastructure construction, and the rising Eastern Dragon at this time brings opportunities to Djibouti with the "Belt and Road" initiative.
The opportunity of the dragon west is entrusted
When we look back at history, it is not difficult to find that Africa as a whole is not short of money, but lacks the ability to make economic blood.
According to the World Bank, the international community has assisted Africa for more than $2 trillion in the past 50 years, but why is Africa still poor?
Because Western society, simply saving the poor in the form of a show, has never thought about what the African economy needs?
The African continent has 30.22 million square kilometers, a population of nearly 1.3 billion, and countless agricultural and mineral resources, but today they are hungry simply because of a lack of democracy and money?
No! What Africans really lack is never concrete materials, but the time and ideas of patient development. But the West simply does not want to give all this to the African population.
Whether African regimes are independent or not, Western societies regard them as their economic colonies. They plunder raw materials at low prices, recklessly dump excess goods, and maliciously suppress local companies.
The white people do not care whether Africans can feed themselves, nor do they care whether there is a national economy of their own.
When there is a famine in Africa, countries such as Britain and the United States will bring food aid, so that no one can concentrate on agriculture; At the slightest shortage of domestic materials, the "humanitarians" will carry the banner of "morality" and send all kinds of materials, which makes Africans not want to develop national industries at all.
Western countries' assistance to Africa is not to fundamentally solve the problem of local poverty and development, but only to use simple violent means and "democratic fraternity" actions to cater to their "moral vanity" and hinder the path of self-improvement and development of late-developing countries.
The same is true of aid from the United States and other Western countries to Djibouti. In the past hundred years, Djibouti has never achieved fundamental development with the assistance of Western countries.
The mainland, on the other hand, has focused on investment and construction in its aid to African countries over the years. Whether it is the Tanzania-Zambia railway in 1970 or the construction of the port of Bagamoyo in 2013, mainland aid has always been infrastructure construction with long investment and slow returns.
Although this kind of assistance has little short-term benefit, it helps the development of local supporting industries. Because infrastructure construction requires a large number of civil engineering and steel materials, the huge demand will give birth to local national heavy industry.
Heavy industry is the cornerstone of the modern economy, and with the help of heavy industry, the light industrial sector, which has a close relationship with ordinary people, can thrive.
It is precisely because of this that the mainland has taken infrastructure construction as an opportunity to promote aid to Africa. It is hoped that African countries can also absorb the mainland's valuable development experience and achieve more success.
To Djibouti, this is how the mainland has come to its aid. As of 2015, Djibouti has become the largest overseas investor in the mainland.
By providing low-interest loans for infrastructure projects, the mainland has provided about $10 billion in financial support to Djibouti.
As of 2019, more than 20 Chinese enterprises have set up in Djibouti, deeply involved in fields such as infrastructure construction, information and communication and logistics.
For example, in 2012, mainland enterprises successfully won the bid for the construction of the Yaji railway. The Yadji Railway is an extremely important railway in Djibouti and is the most important transport route connecting Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Since Eritrea's independence, Ethiopia has lost access to the sea, mainly through Djibouti. However, due to the topography of the East African plateau, the construction of the Yadji Railway was extremely difficult.
Despite repeated requests from Kyrgyzstan and Egypt, the West has not been able to build the railway for both countries. Ultimately, it is Chinese to reach out to these African brothers.
The total length of the Yadji railway is 752.7 kilometers, of which the Djibouti section is 90 kilometers long. The mainland not only provides high-quality and low-cost railway facilities for the two countries, but also offers to help the two countries raise funds, providing loans amounting to 30 billion yuan. In the end, it took 5 years, and the Yaji Railway was fully opened in 2017.
In addition to railway infrastructure, the mainland also provides a complete set of railway management systems for its African brothers based on its own railway management experience. Through the Luban Workshop, a vocational training institution, the mainland railway teaches hand-to-hand and trains special railway talents for the two countries. A total of 270 Djibouti employees currently work for the Yadji Railway.
In addition to undertaking infrastructure construction, mainland enterprises are also deeply involved in the development of Djibouti's domestic resources. In 2015, CCCC acquired the 50-year operation and development right of Djibouti's domestic salt lake by acquiring 65% of the shares of Djibouti Salt Industry Company.
In 2017, Shandong enterprise Haiwang Chemical won the bid for the sodium bromide project of Asal salt lake.
It is planned that 52,000 tons of sodium bromide will be produced through the project by this year, creating more than 2,000 jobs in Djibouti. Although the output value of the sodium bromide project is not high, it is the first national industry in the history of the country.
The same is aid, Western countries such as Britain and the United States have brought only more depression, while China's aid projects can allow the country to develop rapidly.
No wonder Djibouti President Guelleh lamented to reporters: The United States and other Western countries have not been able to save this place in 100 years, but Chinese in only 3 years, everything is fine!
As the saying goes, "If you don't give up, I will depend on each other for life and death", mainland aid has fundamentally helped Africa solve the problem of poverty, and this attitude of "comparing hearts to hearts" has also won the trust of the people of Djibouti.
In order to repay the help of friends, the Djibouti government specially resisted the pressure of the United States and Japan and other countries to give a big gift to the mainland where overseas projects have been blocked, that is, the Djibouti Port Cooperation Project.
In 2013, China Merchants Corporation acquired a 23.5% stake in Djibouti Port Co., Ltd. for US$185 million, giving China the opportunity to deeply participate in the operation of Djibouti Port.
China Merchants Group has taken advantage of the development experience of Shenzhen Shekou Port to double the overall throughput of Djibouti Port by improving its management level and investing in Dodo Rei Multi-purpose Port.
The following year, the mainland enterprise Dalu Group was authorized by the Kyrgyz government to establish a "special economic zone" in Kyrgyzstan. Dalu Group will use the 90-99 year land lease to emulate Hong Kong and Dubai to develop high-end service industries such as port services, commerce and trade, real estate and tourism in Djibouti.
These projects in Kyrgyzstan may seem ordinary, but they are actually of great significance. Because for a long time, the right to operate ports has been considered the "patent" of Western consortiums.
In Djibouti, mainland enterprises are responsible for the construction of ports and supporting facilities, which will become an important stage for China's maritime industry to demonstrate its capabilities to the world.
In addition, the port operation cooperation agreement between the mainland and Djibouti coincided with the blockage of the mainland's project at the port of Bagamoyo, Tanzania.
At that time, the mainland was promoting the "Belt and Road" initiative in Africa, hoping to take the opportunity of Tanzania to build and operate the port to build Tanzania into a window and bridgehead for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.
The mainland attaches great importance to this project, because on the one hand, if the Bagamoyo Port project is successfully carried out, the mainland will further enhance its influence in Africa;
On the other hand, after the operation of the Port of Bagamoyo, it will form a network with the Gwadar Port, which assisted the construction of the "Pakistan Railway". We can transport resources from Africa from Pakistan to the mainland and help us wean ourselves off our dependence on shipping in the Strait of Malacca.
But the move undoubtedly touched cheese in Western countries.
In order to sabotage the mainland plan, the United States and Japan did not hesitate to use bribery and other means, so that the port project went through many iterations and finally ended in failure. Just when the mainland's top officials were worried about the stranding of the project to go to sea, the Djibouti government handed an olive branch to the mainland.
In its "Vision 2035", the Kyrgyzstan government had the idea of building the port of Djibouti into an important commercial and logistics center in East Africa, but it suffered from lack of funds and advanced operational experience. Now Kyrgyzstan chooses to carry out in-depth cooperation with the mainland, which is equivalent to entrusting the dream and future of the entire country into our hands.
And the builders of the mainland have not lived up to the trust and trust of the people of Djibouti. After years of cooperation, Djibouti has become the most developed country in the "Horn of Africa" region.
In 2019, Djibouti's per capita GDP exceeded the $3,000 mark to $3,172, far higher than the average of its neighbors in the same region.
At the same time, with its in-depth cooperation with the mainland, Djibouti has also become an excellent stage for the "Belt and Road" initiative. Through Djibouti, a "bridgehead", more and more African countries are actively engaged in cooperation with the mainland.
With the hot land of Africa, the continent's economy has gained a stronger momentum for take-off.