The headline of the report on Forbes.com is arresting to say the least – ‘China Grabs A Slice Of Africa’. The report refers to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Limited’s (ICBC) buying 20% of the Standard Bank, Africa’s largest, for $5.5 billion. This, as the report notes, is after the China Development Bank – another state-run enterprise like the ICBC – buying a chunk of Barclays, another bank with a big Africa footprint.

The way I see it, China has moved strategically to secure a large slice of the diamond supply pipeline – even if the move may be just a by-product of other imperatives.

In September, the world suddenly sat up and took notice as China lent $5 billion to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help it develop its infrastructure. In return, Chinese companies will get mining concessions and toll revenues from the newly built highways and other infrastructure projects.

Given that 13% of Africa’s exports are now routed to China and trade volumes between the two are growing 50% every year, China’s moves make good strategic sense. And fortunately for the Chinese diamond industry, places like the DRC and South Africa – where the Standard Bank is headquartered – also feature rough diamonds among their top exports, and they benefit from their government’s long-term planning that is primarily focussed on securing strategic resources to sustain that country’s explosive economic growth.

The trouble is, I haven’t known the diamond industry anywhere in the world to ever have made anticipatory moves with long-term strategic objectives in mind. It is usually focussed on the short term and usually only executes knee-jerk responses to changes in the pipeline or the marketplace.

While most of the industry met in Antwerp a few weeks ago – mainly to tell Africa that they were still around, the Chinese have been out taking concrete action. The diamond supply chain tomorrow isn’t going to look anything like we anticipated.