Two decades ago, China pioneered the so-called “Angola model” wherein it provided oil-backed loans from China to Angola and other African cuntries to finance the building of roads, hydroelectric dams, railways, and other infrastructural projects. Between 2000 and 2022, Angola borrowed $45 billion from China, repaying some of it in oil. Unfortunately, that model did not last very long, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noting that Angola has slipped to the 8th largest crude supplier to China, down from second…