When commentators discuss China’s expanding involvement in Africa, they often point at its continuity with the Cold War period. For example, state-socialist managers used the inconvertibility of Eastern European currencies to lower the costs of their services. The 1973 oil embargo was a game changer for Eastern European construction export. The profits from oil sales, deposited by Arab governments with Western financial institutions, were lent to socialist countries intent on modernizing their economies. These memories speak more about the experience of collaboration that bypassed the West, and less about a Cold War confrontation, old or new.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 09, 2020 16:41 UTC