Response to US' attack on the Belt and Road Initiative: An African perspective

Washington's recent attempts — including from high level officials and its Secretary of State — to discredit China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only predictable but embarrassingly detached from the reality on the ground, especially in Africa.

These attempts reflect a desperate and outdated mindset — one that still believes the world can be bullied into accepting American exceptionalism while rejecting meaningful alternatives that actually deliver.

The truth is stark: China's BRI has succeeded precisely because it offers what the West never could — mutually respectful, non-intrusive partnerships based on infrastructure, trade and capacity-building, rather than sermons, sanctions and strings.

African nations are tired of being treated like charity cases by the same powers that spent decades looting their resources and undermining their sovereignty. Unlike the patronizing and often unsustainable "brotherhoods" peddled by Western powers — relationships riddled with condescension and conditionalities— China approaches Africa with open hands, not pointed fingers.

Its foreign policy is underpinned by the "five-no" approach: No interference in African countries' pursuit of development that fit their national conditions, no interference in internal affairs, no imposition of China's will on African countries, no political strings on assistance to Africa, and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa.

These are not mere slogans — they are the foundation of China's appeal.
Its doctrine of non-interference and mutual benefit is not theoretical — it is seen and felt across the continent in concrete projects, new roads, hospitals, power grids and universities.

In Zimbabwe alone, the Chinese-funded New Parliament Building is a towering symbol of this partnership — not a shackle, but a scaffold for national growth.
The US' sneering reference to the BRI while preaching about humanitarian aid is laughable, if not insulting. This is the same United States that spends trillions on global military adventurism while African hospitals crumble and classrooms collapse, slashed aid to multilateral agencies while claiming to champion "democracy" and "development", and lectures Africa about debt while refusing to forgive its own toxic loans or repair the damage from exploitative trade deals.

Meanwhile, China has written off billions in interest-free loans, trained over half a million African professionals, and built critical infrastructure that no Western donor ever bothered to touch. And it has done so without demanding regime change, intrusive monitoring missions, or engineered collapse.

That, Mr America, is why China is winning hearts across the Global South.

Just like Zimbabwe, China does not seek enemies; it seeks partners. It does not parachute in with blueprints for puppet democracies. It listens, it builds, and it leaves the keys behind. That is why China is not feared in Africa — it is embraced. If the US wants to compete with China, it must first unlearn its imperial arrogance and stop mistaking moral posturing for global leadership.

The era of arm-twisting dressed as diplomacy is over. Africa is not the backyard of Washington or Brussels. It is the beating heart of a multipolar world, and in that world, the BRI is not a threat. It's a lifeline.

The writer is a Zimbabwean political commentator. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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