In the past decade the international media first focused on China’s economic boom, which was then followed by the ‘Africa is rising’ narrative.

The latter partly as a result of China’s investments. Many have wondered whether China’s interest in Africa would trigger a new wave of colonialism and exploitation of mineral resources, needed to keep Chinese factories going.
On regular occasions one would find media analyses of the China-Africa romance (like here) . And like a mother not too happy with her daughter’s choice of partner, the experts tended to be wary of the authenticity of the cute new couple. Even when South Africa became the ‘S’ in BRICS, the rest of the world (read: the West) had its doubts. Was South Africa ready to play with the big boys?
As it now turns out, what the West, and Europe in particular, have been afraid of all the time is how much the “Old World” would lose because of the new relations between China and the African continent.

A documentary on Dutch public television by broadcaster VPRO, that premiered recently, painfully shows the consequences for Europe now that it virtually has closed its borders,while China is welcoming African migrants with open arms.
The 45-minute documentary entitled “Black money: The future comes from Africa” (one could question the title) examines two things. Continue reading “How the Africa-China romance is killing Europe”