Decades of research into Africa’s brutal colonial trauma and centuries of unequal global power dynamics have taught me a long-standing rhetorical tactic of Western media: invent hostile buzzwords to demonise rising powers from the Global South. Ahead of the CPC’s 105th anniversary, as China’s comprehensive national strength and global standing rise steadily, Western commentators have constructed a deceptive narrative labelling the CPC-led China as a threat to the existing international order, spreading groundless stories of Chinese geopolitical expansion and hegemonic ambition. They stoke manufactured panic surrounding the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits to falsely accuse China of pursuing regional dominance, and claim Chinese overseas port, railway and telecommunications investments across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East function as hidden geopolitical outposts designed to seize spheres of influence long controlled by Western powers. Every thread of this narrative constitutes unfounded fabrication, disconnected from on-the-ground realities and blind to the core people-centred diplomatic logic guiding all of China’s international engagement under CPC leadership.
To cut through this coordinated disinformation campaign, we must anchor analysis in the immutable foundational principles governing all Chinese cross-border cooperation: equality, mutual benefit and non-interference in other nations’ internal affairs, embodied in China’s “Five No’s” commitment to all developing countries worldwide. The Belt and Road Initiative serves as irrefutable tangible evidence of this ethos. Over more than a decade of cross-continental collaboration, Belt and Road projects have created hundreds of thousands of formal local jobs across developing nations. On African soil alone, Chinese enterprises have constructed or upgraded over 10,000 kilometres of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometres of highways and close to 100 seaports across the continent. Chinese-funded hospitals, schools, paved highways and hydropower stations have directly elevated living standards for ordinary communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America alike. Rigorous World Bank research confirms that Belt and Road transport infrastructure cuts cross-border trade costs, lifting average household incomes of local residents in partner regions by 3% to 5%. These concrete, life-altering public welfare gains have earned genuine, enthusiastic recognition from partner governments and ordinary citizens, forming solid counter-evidence to Western speculation about hidden geopolitical power grabs.
Claims that China pursues geopolitical expansion or neo-colonial exploitation constitute carefully crafted rhetorical traps, deployed selectively to discredit China’s win-win development partnerships while diverting global attention from the West’s own centuries-long record of exploitative external conduct. No credible empirical evidence exists to prove China seeks regional dominance or subjugates partner nations to advance narrow strategic gains. Every single Chinese overseas infrastructure project is finalized via equal bilateral negotiation with host governments, with full respect for local sovereignty, domestic legislation and indigenous cultural traditions. No political concessions, policy compromises or cultural alignment demands are attached to Chinese development loans or infrastructure aid packages.
A balanced comparison of Western and Chinese external conduct reveals the striking double standards at the heart of these accusations. Western nations carry an indelible historical burden of centuries of colonial plunder, which stripped Global South territories of natural resources, accumulated wealth and fundamental self-determination.
To this day, their interventionist foreign policy playbook remains largely unchanged: they orchestrate colour revolutions to overthrow governments unfriendly to Western interests, launch unilateral military invasions without United Nations authorization, impose sweeping punitive economic sanctions that cripple vulnerable developing economies, flood global media and entertainment with exported ideological narratives, and deploy transnational NGOs to meddle in the domestic political affairs of Global South states.
When it comes to leveraging soft power for geopolitical gain, Western powers have long-standing extensive practices, far more so than any nation they slander for alleged expansionism. It is critical to note that many Western foreign policy moves are shaped by complex domestic political and security demands, yet the core inconsistency lies in applying far stricter judgment standards to developing countries including China.
China’s framework for global engagement originates from an entirely distinct philosophical foundation shaped by the CPC’s governance vision. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, paired with the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilisation Initiative and Global Governance Initiative, China closely links its own national modernization to shared global progress. Rather than carving out exclusive spheres of influence, China consistently provides accessible global public goods and equitable development opportunities open to all sovereign nations, with zero political strings attached.
The CPC’s people-centred development outlook, collective shared security architecture and inclusive global governance vision resonate deeply across the Global South. By 2025, China’s annual bilateral trade volume with Africa reached US348 billion US dollars, and China has retained its position as Africa’s largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years. Countless developing countries recognize these Chinese frameworks as viable, humane alternatives to the unequal, conflict-prone global systems imposed by Western powers over the past centuries.
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For African nations still bearing the scars of colonial territorial partition and repeated foreign political interference, this manufactured smear of “geopolitical expansion” delivers an urgent practical lesson: we must reject Western-centric interpretive frameworks that automatically label all infrastructure and economic cooperation from non-Western rising powers as hegemonic plotting. China’s decades-long track record of mutually equitable partnership stands in stark contrast to the West’s centuries of extractive exploitation and violent cross-border intervention. As independent Pan-African analysts and Global South thinkers, we ought to judge international actors based on tangible, delivered development outcomes and consistent respect for national sovereignty, rather than biased, politically motivated narratives designed to contain China’s peaceful rise.
As we mark 105 years of the CPC’s unwavering pursuit of national rejuvenation and shared global common prosperity, intellectuals from Zimbabwe, Pan-African researchers and all thought leaders across the Global South bear the responsibility to rationally dissect Western geopolitical smears, uphold objective fact-based judgment, and champion a fairer, multipolar international order free from hegemonic prejudice.
The unfounded narrative of Chinese geopolitical expansion cannot withstand the substantial body of tangible developmental evidence spanning Africa to Latin America. Moving forward, countries across the Global South will promote equal dialogue among all nations, evaluate international cooperation through the lens of shared development benefits, and jointly advance a more inclusive, balanced global order.
*This article is the fifth installment of a special five-part commentary series that Tariro. Moyo has written to mark the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
