Thread by @Fournacegroup

Opposite responses from Paris and Beijing to last week's #malicoup

underscore the risks #China accepted in the last decade

to supplant France as "most-favored" superpower in West Africa

and gain access to minerals, chemicals and metals that drive econ and military

1/

With the exception of Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria,

France has been part of the West African community for >100yrs

spreading lingua franca from Dakar to N'Djamena

and creating economies supported by the #French Franc which has proven valuable in post-colonial AF

2/

#Beijing undervalued the bonds that had developed between Paris and many West African countries following the end of colonialism

which included programs to assist members of former French colonies to apply for French citizenship.

3/

Chinese President Xi Jinping didn't hesitate to follow previous examples of Chinese intervention in other parts of #Africa

by assuming that every govt would be directly influenced by cash and feel-good projects including pipelines and highway construction

4/

In #BurkinaFaso, for example, the funding of the Textile Industry was a way of co-opting the local press and providing jobs.

As hordes of Chinese govt engineers and metallurgists started plotting out GPS locations

xenophobia reared its ugly head

5/

Unfortunately for #Xi,

the local Burkinabe did not respond well to the influx of Chinese construction workers and various support staff

The Burkinabe place a great deal of import on courtesy and friendliness

6/

The #Chinese working abroad tend to keep to themselves which increased local unease

Just as the Chinese began to address this problem with culture and language instruction for its in-country employees,

#SARSCoV2 arrived 💥💥💥

7/

The media in Niamey, Abidjan, Dakar, Bamako and Ouagadougou, always on the lookout for western abuses of African resources,

followed #AFP, Le Figaro and Le Monde

in placing at least a part of the blame for the virus on #Wuhan lab and the #CCP

8/

Counterintuitively, however, last week's coup in Bamako may provide #Xi a bit of breathing room,

as #Beijing formulates a new policy

to retain hard-earned and expensive access to the priceless resources in #Mali, #Niger, and #BurkinaFaso

9/

So far, Beijing has followed the UN/intl line

which makes perfect sense

as it's essential for the Bamako interim government to keep control

and provide the Chinese some level of security for the billions invested

👉as more than just #Mali is at stake in W Africa

10/10