China, Africa and realpolitik

Came across these statistics in a presentation by Sebastian Teunissen , a Professor at Univ. of California. 

Pl. read in conjunction with my earlier post on this topic (“China’s investment and expansion in Africa”) and you will see why this is of strategic importance.

Thought provoking:

• China has become the biggest foreign investor in Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe is the world’s second-largest exporter of platinum, a key import for China’s auto industry
• Chinese workers built Mugabe’s new $9m home featuring a blue-tiled roof donated by the Chinese government
• China supplied Mugabe with fighter jets and troop carriers worth about $240m in exchange for gold and tobacco
• China has also agreed to sell armaments to Nigeria – $251m worth of Chinese fighter jets, financed by China’s Exim Bank – and satellite technology provided by defense contractor Norinco.