Local and international experts and diplomats on Wednesday discussed what they called China’s “bad governance model” in Africa, saying it was creating unpayable debts for countries in that continent.
Participants highlighted Taiwan’s model in Somaliland as an alternative at the half-day symposium, themed “China’s Bad Governance Model for Africa — Alternative Visions,” which was organized by the Taiwan Inspiration Association.
Former US ambassador to Zambia Eric Schultz said at the Taipei seminar that the landlocked African country where he was posted from 2014 to 2017 is widely considered “ground zero” for China’s investment on the continent.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Since the Patriotic Front government assumed power in 2011, Zambia has worked hand-in-hand with China on a number of major construction programs, he said.
Unfortunately, as part of these deals, only Chinese companies were allowed to compete, meaning the profits were ultimately shared by Chinese companies and government officials, while ordinary Zambians received none of the benefits, Schultz said.
Beijing had provided more than US$10 billion in loans to Zambia during the Patriotic Front administration — from 2011 to 2021 — which was as much as 50 percent of the country’s GDP, he said.
Using the case of Zambia as an example, Schultz urged the US and its democratic allies, including Taiwan, to do more to help African countries repay Chinese debt.
“We should work to expand the reach and influence of democratic rule, while expanding the reach and influence of commerce,” he said.
Doing so is not intended to “impose our views, but an encouragement that we should help African countries manage the burden of China,” he added.
Schultz encouraged democratic allies to help African countries press China for better terms, and debt and interest forgiveness.
The relationship between Taiwan and Somaliland is an alternative to China’s bad governance model, Representative to Somaliland Allen Lou (羅震華) said.
Somaliland is the “only country to say no to China in Africa,” Lou said.
In contrast to the Chinese model, Taiwan’s model of cooperation is “people-centric” and focuses on “knowledge transfers and capacity building,” Lou said at the symposium.
Ultimately, Taiwan wants to create a model in Somaliland to win more friends in East Africa, he said.
Lou also called on more like-minded partners headed by the US to join such cooperation in Somaliland “so we can work together to achieve more.”
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has been functioning as a de facto state, but it has yet to be recognized diplomatically by any other country in the world.
Taiwan and Somaliland set up representative offices in each other’s capitals in 2020.
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