China To Increase Investment In Africa

A senior Chinese official said on Wednesday China was set to announce new aid to African nations when Xi visits Zimbabwe and South Africa next month.

China will advance the “rule of law” over the armed forces and establish a new discipline inspection commission within the Central Military Commission, Xi added.

“They are going to build a base in Djibouti, so that will be their first military location in Africa”, it quotes US Army Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of US Africa Command, as recently telling defense reporters.

Briefing the press in Lusaka yesterday on the FOCAC meeting to be held on December 4-5, this year, Mr Yang said the platform will help to promote trade and investment between China and Africa as well as uplift the living standards of people on the continent.

“Under the leadership of the party, the army has gone from small to large, from weak to strong and from victory to victory”, Xi told military leaders, according to Xinhua. The reforms politically empower the defence ministry, which functions under President Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission. President Jinping maintains that China is as committed to ideals of peace, cooperation and mutual respect as ever and hopes that the downsizing project will convey China’s non-threatening intent to its neighbors. According to The New York Times, President Jinping said at the September parade, “The Chinese military has over two million members, and Mr. Xi has embarked on an accelerated modernization of the armed forces, which would shift spending from the traditional land forces to more advanced sea and air forces, which require fewer but better trained personnel”.

Xi is determined to modernize the military at the same time as China gets more assertive in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas.

In May, the Pentagon said in a report to Congress that creating joint-command entities in China “would be the most significant changes to the PLA’s command organization since 1949”.

China has become the largest foreign investor in Zimbabwe after the emerging Asian giant poured more than $200 million into the country in 2014, latest figures show.

Agenda 2063 has a 50-year horizon with five 10-year implementation plans that cover 2013-2063, founded on the African Union vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”. Beijing has enormous economic interests in the region that it needs to protect. It’s also making more of an effort to comply with local regulations. The general direction of the overhaul, included plans to reorganise the four headquarters – General Staff, General Political, General Logistics and General Armaments – and to consolidate the seven military command regions.