As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) gathered leaders from almost all African nations for a summit in Beijing, some former Chinese officials and state media were busy mounting an unusually strong defense of China’s role on the continent.
China has long bristled at accusations that it is solely interested in Africa’s raw materials and that its no-strings-attached approach to loans and aid has only encouraged graft and brought unsustainably high debt.
At the few news conferences during the summit, African reporters peppered Chinese officials with questions about corruption, environmental problems and concerns about a lack of Africans employed in some of China’s projects.
Cheng Tao (程濤), former head of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Africa division and previously China’s ambassador to Mali and Morocco, said it was unfair to blame China for supporting governments accused of corruption.
“An African friend told me, our government is extremely corrupt. How come you’re still involved with them? Our government has asked the Chinese government to build a bridge and a hospital, but the Chinese government shouldn’t help them,” he said, without naming the country.
“I told him — you voted for this government. It’s the only government we can deal with, but the bridge and the hospital are not built for the president or officials, but are for the common people. So I think this is another perspective that can be considered when looking at this issue,” he said.
Of the 10 bottom-ranked nation’s in last year’s corruption perceptions index by Transparency International, four of them sent their presidents to the summit — Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.
Since Xi took office six years ago, he has mounted a war against deeply ingrained graft in China, and the government has been keen to show it is not encouraging similar problems overseas.
Former Chinese special envoy to Africa Liu Guijin (劉貴今) said China did not want its money frittered away through corruption.
“China’s engagement in Africa is focused on its people and we do not give our money to corrupt governments or officials,” said Liu, who was previously deeply involved in efforts to end Sudan’s civil war and still advises Beijing.
Indeed, a declaration adopted after the summit, released yesterday, said that China and Africa would continue to take a “zero tolerance” approach to corruption.
Another area of rising concern has been the amount of debt African nations owe China.
Speaking in Ethiopia in March, then-US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said African nations 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 before the summit opened denied that his country was engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and on Tuesday, China’s special envoy to the continent said that Beijing is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt.
The overseas edition of the People’s Daily on Saturday said in a commentary that certain people it did not name never tired of trying to attack China-Africa cooperation under the guise of concern about debt or neocolonialism.
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 nations say China generally offers better terms and is more willing to provide money than the US or Europe.
Bureau of Coordination and Planning for an Emerging Gabon general coordinator Liban Soleman said on the summit’s sidelines the idea that China is saddling African nations with debt they cannot 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 on Monday told a business summit 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 Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan (鐘山) told the forum on Sunday.
As Africans became increasingly technologically able, there would be less need for Chinese workers to be flown in, said Jiang Zengwei (姜增偉), chairman of the government-run China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
“This is what we must do or we cannot foster a long-term cooperative relationship,” he told reporters.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS