China is committing $10 billion to building highways and infrastructure in Congo "in exchange for lucrative mining concessions," according to Stephanie McCrummen in the Washington Post.  Chinese companies will make a profit and the PRC will be perceived — if all goes well — as a bringer of prosperity to a major African country.  China — not the World Bank, nor the IMF, and certainly not the United States of America, which could afford to underwrite many more such projects if we weren’t hemmorhaging money to pay for "post-war" reconstruction in Iraq.  True, the U.S. is not sitting idly — for example, a major project for Indian infrastructure is underway.  But China seems to have a lock on projects that kick-start economies in Africa, bringing foreign policy and economic benefits to China from that continent for decades to come.  This is the way empires have been built since Rome was great.  Put in more prosaic terms, you have to spend money to make money.  Major countries that neglect these kinds of overseas investments may soon enough see their own infrastructure crumbling.

Ned Hodgman

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