Another area of rising concern has been the amount of debt African countries now owe China. Xi offered Africa another $60 billion on Monday.
Speaking in Ethiopia in March, then-US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said African countries should be careful not to forfeit their sovereignty when they accept loans from China and carefully consider the terms of those agreements.
A senior Chinese official denied before the summit opened that his country was engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and yesterday China’s special envoy to the continent said China is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt.
The overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily wrote in a commentary on Saturday that certain people it did not name never tired of trying to attack China-Africa cooperation under the guise of concern about debt or neo-colonialism.
It cited what it said was an African expression that there was “nothing scary about a loan”.
“The crux is what you do with it. Do you go buy oxen and sheep to expand production, or buy booze for a moment of fun?” the paper said.
African countries say China generally offers better terms, and is more willing to provide money than the United States or Europe.
Liban Soleman, general coordinator of the Bureau of Coordination and Planning for an Emerging Gabon, told Reuters on the summit’s sidelines the idea that China is saddling African countries with debt they can’t repay is “unfair”.
“I think that what the Chinese system has offered Africa is something that is … probably the most flexible, specifically with the system between the grace periods and the very low interest rates,” he said.
“I think that the main element that people misunderstand is the competitiveness of the infrastructure prices that the Chinese companies are giving to African countries.”
China has acknowledged there are some problems it is working to fix. Xi told a business summit on Monday that Chinese funds are not for “vanity projects” and Chinese firms must respect local people and the environment in Africa.
By the end of this year, China would have provided technical training for more than 200 000 Africans, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan told a China-Africa forum on Sunday according to a Commerce Ministry statement.
Jiang Zengwei, Chairman of the government-run China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said as Africans became increasingly technologically able, there would be less need for Chinese workers to be flown in.
“This is what we must do or we cannot foster a long-term cooperative relationship,” he told reporters.- Reuters
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