The victory of ‘Red Prince‘ Felix Tshisekedi (53), who capitalised his father’s Etienne legend, upset the West, sincerely hoping that a globalist and liberal Martin Fayulu (62) former Exxon-Mobil top manager will capture the imagination the Congolese nation. However the miracle did not happen, and Congolese people, especially those, who live on less than $1.25 a day, defined as the threshold for extreme poverty, voted Socialism. In Congo 80% of population is falls under the description of as extremely poor, logically seeing in leftist Tshisekedi-son a protector of their interests with his political UDPS party programme to defeat poverty: “Vaincre la pauvreté”.
The frustration of the West hit the lowest, when they endorsed the interference of the Catholic Church in the election process, referring to it as to an ‘honest broker’, monitoring the elections, and accumulating the ‘authentic‘ data on people’s vote in favor of Martin Fayulu.
Although since the collapse of the USSR, more than a billion people across the globe have been lifted out of extreme poverty in Russia, China, India, following the principles of the liberal system, nevertheless the charms of the Socialism in some parts of the world stayed intact. Especially among African youth, who believes in superiority of the socialism over capitalism, and in Congo the population pyramid clearly indicates the dominance of young generation with median age of 17 years old.
However the crucial factor in favor of the Congolese ‘Red Prince‘ Felix Tshisekedi is China, the major trading partner, and investor in DR Congo. The Chinese model is seen by many Africans as a genuine alternative to the Western capitalism, with the Communist party keeping business ambitions framed. Led by Communists, Chinese annual trade with Africa has amounted to $220 billion, making it Africa’s largest bilateral trading partner.
Congo possesses half of the world’s cobalt reserves, and is high quality copper, both in growing demand of modern high-tech industries, assessing Central African country as one of the richest in the world in raw minerals with $24 trillion worth.
However Chinese companies are not just trading in raw materials, but spending $3 billion to build roads, hospitals and universities in Kinshasa and throughout entire Congo. The barter is part of a new philosophy of Communist party that combines development aid and mineral concessions in a package deal. It’s a business model the Chinese are replicating across the African continent, infusing their influence though aid at the most rapidly growing market in the world. Within this economic realities, the victory of the Socialist candidate, is also a reflection of the Chinese Communist party growing influence on African continent.
Anna Van Densky blog 