Gabriele Steinhauser
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
I arrived here a little over eight years ago in 2016, the year when Chinese lending to Africa was at its highest ever.
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
From the moment you land, a lot of the airports are Chinese-built. A lot of the new highways that you might take from the airport into the capital city will be Chinese-built. Often you have Chinese hotels. You see Chinese people who live there. You have a presence of Chinese banks, of Chinese construction companies.
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
For instance, if you want financing from the World Bank, there are a lot of hoops that you need to jump through. They're going to look at your balance sheet. They're going to look at the specifics of this project. They're going to look at the environmental impact. They might say, actually, we don't want to invest in fossil fuels anymore.
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
If you're a government that quickly wants to build something and maybe wants to show results to its citizens before the next election, somebody who maybe has fewer resources hoops to jump through is going to be an attractive partner.
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
I mean, the family photo, as they're called, you know, those pictures of all the leaders sort of like standing together and getting their photo taken.
WSJ What’s News
How China’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bet Undercuts U.S. Dominance
I was impressed. I mean, everybody was there. People who don't travel, people that we rarely see. And it was a bigger showing than the Americans had at Biden's US-Africa summit at the end of 2022.