It's funny that you call Belt and Road "bribs" when it's basically the World Bank/IMF playbook with one difference: it's a much better deal for the recipients.

The WB/IMF playbook is to pressure or bribe leaders into taking on debt that forces policy changes. Somalia is the posterchild for this. They force the country to produce export crops and the result is the country ends up being unable to feed itself and then the currency inevitably collapses and the country can no longer service its debt. They did the same to Haiti and elsewhere. It's economic colonaialism. The WB/IMF are a tool for American foreign policy.

China offers a significantly better deal [1]. US influence ("exploitation") in Africa is fading [2]. It's such an issue that the US Africa Command is headquartered in Germany.

China's foreign policy is largely offering to build ports, airports, roads and power plants. You know, infrastructure that actually helps and doesn't just enrich the leader and drown the country in debt.

[1]: https://gga.org/china-vs-the-imf/

[2]: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us-is-losing-africa...