Douglas Burton: The New “Red Colonialism” CCP in ME & Africa, New Paradigms w/Sargis Sangari EP #140

On Monday, 6 MAR 23, on New Paradigms with Sargis Sangari, Episode #140, Douglas Burton, Award-Winning Conflict Reporter, and former U.S. State Department Official, joins me to discuss The New "Red Colonialism" driven by China's Middle East (#ME) & #Africa Economic Goals.

My discussion with Doug focused on a wide-ranging exchange of views that highlights the clash of visions between the approach to development by #China on the one hand and the United States on the other.

The Agents of the Chinese Communist Party (#CCP) during the last 20 years have taken the lead away from Western banks, although the United States is trying hard to catch up before China wraps up air-tight near exclusive trading protocols for major African capitals with #Beijing.

On the playing field of Africa & the Middle East, China is testing its government-led economic development governance system led by a single-party authoritarian state. The U.S. needs to advocate the alternative quickly.

In the Middle East, China teaches Mandarin Chinese to the Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish North as it supports the Iraqi Central Banks' decision Iraqi central bank to drop the Dollar for Yuan in trade with China, despite the Iraqi PM's disapproval.

In Africa, the newly opened Chinese Port at the entrance to #Lagos, #Nigeria, will be a "game changer," according to Chinese authorities. But chiefly a win for Chinese #espionage and trade advantage. The Chinese have effectively deployed soft power through scholarship programs for Nigerian graduate students. Some of these students may return as covert agents of industrial spying.

A pivotal election in Nigeria on Feb 25, 2023, appears to have been rigged by the incumbent party. Thousands of citizens taking on the de facto role of election observers have documented the rigging in such detail it likely never will be refuted. Yet, the #Biden Administration rushed to endorse the announcement prematurely, thereby risking the loss of reputation and credibility as the documentation of fraud creeps in.

Prescriptions for U.S. diplomats include genuine concern for millions of religious minorities who are squeezed between globalist investor schemes and sectarian, #ethniccleansing by radicalized insurgents.

My guest Douglas Burton, who guided the U.S. Fulbright recruitment effort in wartime Iraq, calls for the citizen to citizen diplomacy between citizens of faith in the West and citizens in Nigeria who struggle for survival with their homemade shotguns in one hand and their iPhones in the other.

#middleeast #china #africa #CCP #redcolonialism