{"id":9071,"date":"2022-08-29T12:55:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/some-debt-trap-china-forgives-23-unpaid-loans-to-17-african-nations-readies-10-billion-in-credit"},"modified":"2022-08-29T13:11:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T13:11:39","slug":"some-debt-trap-china-forgives-23-unpaid-loans-to-17-african-nations-readies-10-billion-in-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/some-debt-trap-china-forgives-23-unpaid-loans-to-17-african-nations-readies-10-billion-in-credit","title":{"rendered":"Some Debt Trap! China Forgives 23 Unpaid Loans to 17 African Nations, Readies $10 Billion in Credit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi revealed recently that Beijing would forgive a substantial amount of debt owed to its financial institutions by African nations. China has been accused by Western powers of predatory lending to poorer nations and using their debts to compel them to adopt pro-Beijing positions.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on August 18 at the Coordinators’ Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. Among other actions, it said that \u201cChina will waive 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries that matured by the end of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the announcement did not state the volume of debt that had been forgiven. Debt forgiveness has been a regular feature of China\u2019s financial relationship with Africa, and because it refuses to meddle in the political affairs of its lender nations, China is rapidly becoming the lender of choice on the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far this year, China has signed with 12 African countries exchanges of letters on zero tariff for 98% of their export items to China. Chinese companies have invested [an] additional $2.17 billion in Africa. The Chinese side is prepared to re-channel, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and Resilience and Sustainability Trust, $10 billion of its Special Drawing Rights to Africa, and will encourage the IMF to direct China’s contributions to Africa,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Wang said that China\u2019s cooperation with African nations is \u201centirely based on Africa’s needs\u201d and that Beijing does not seek to establish spheres of influence. Instead, Beijing seeks \u201cto enhance capacity for independent development and improve people’s livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Tries to Rein In Africa<\/b><\/p>\n

Wang\u2019s comments come after US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield traveled to Uganda earlier this month on what she claimed was a \u201clistening tour,\u201d except that she told African nations that they cannot trade with Russia because of Western sanctions.<\/p>\n

Days later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited three African nations in what Washington plainly said was an attempt to bring nations edging toward Moscow back into the US fold. However, South Africa threw his words back in his face, with Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor telling him that the US should be “equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

At the start of the year, Wang made his own tour of several African nations, stopping in Eritrea, a country under heavy US sanction as punishment for refusing to cooperate with US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and for making peace with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to speak out against coercive sanctions.<\/p>\n

One-Sided Criticism<\/b><\/p>\n

Western governments and media have tried to demonize China\u2019s and Russia\u2019s growing involvement in African affairs, claiming they pose a threat to both African and Western interests with predatory loans in the case of China, and so-called mercenaries in the case of Russia. They claim these actions compel African nations to support them, sometimes via secret contract clauses. It is likely no coincidence that this narrative arose as Washington announced it was reorienting its global strategy toward \u201cgreat power competition\u201d with Russia and China.<\/p>\n

Western experts are already trying to spin the debt forgiveness to reinforce their anti-China narratives. Harry Verhoeven, the senior research scholar at Columbia University, told the US state-owned outlet Voice of America that China\u2019s decision was an attempt to \u201cpush back\u201d on \u201cthe overall debt-trap diplomacy narrative\u201d having realized that such allegations are \u201ca bit of a PR nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the FOCAC meeting, Wang also called attention to the other ways in which China has shown solidarity with African nations. He noted that China has provided 189 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 27 African countries, and that joint production of vaccines in Africa, the world\u2019s least vaccinated continent, has exceeded an annual capacity of 400 million doses. He also recalled the many other medical partnerships in operation or development, including upgrading the China-Guinea Friendship Hospital in Conakry and preparing similar upgrades for facilities in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Malawi.<\/p>\n\r\n