University of Notre Dame China scholar, Professor Joshua Eisenman, used this month’s $221 million equity infusion by the state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) into the Lekki Deep Sea Port Project currently under construction at the Lagos Free Trade Zone as another point of evidence as to why the continued U.S. emphasis on Chinese “debt-trap diplomacy” in Africa is misguided.

Seizing assets is politically complicated but, as Professor Eisenman points out, buying stakes in strategic investments that are now much more affordable than they were just a year ago is a much easier way to extend China’s reach.