Chinese President Xi Jinping today pledged nearly $51 billion to boost China’s cooperation with the debt-ridden African continent, while also promising to support more infrastructure initiatives and create at least 1 million jobs.
These commitments were expressed at the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing.
Beijing, the world’s biggest two-way lender, has pledged to roll out three times as many infrastructure projects in resource-rich Africa, while Xi Jinping is prioritising “short and sweet” schemes based on selling advanced and green technologies in which Chinese companies have invested heavily.
“China is willing to deepen cooperation with Africa in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment,” Xi told representatives from more than 50 African countries gathered in Beijing for the ninth meeting of the forum, held every three years.
After the opening ceremony, delegates adopted the Beijing Declaration on Building an “All-Weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in a New Era”, as well as the Beijing Plan of Action for 2025-2027, Chinese state media reported.
Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Ninth China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit
Xi also called for a “China-Africa network featuring land-sea connectivity and coordinated development”, as he asked Chinese contractors to return to the continent of a billion people after projects there were disrupted by Covid-19.
“China and Africa together account for one-third of the world’s population. Without our modernisation, global modernisation will not be possible,” Xi said at the summit.
The Chinese leader pledged 360 billion yuan ($50.70 billion) in financial aid, but clarified that 210 billion would be distributed through credit lines and at least 70 billion would be provided as new investments by Chinese companies, with a smaller amount provided through military aid and other projects.
At the 2021 China-Africa Summit in Dakar, China pledged at least $10 billion in investments and the same amount in credit lines again. This time, the financial aid will be in yuan, a clear attempt to make the Chinese yuan more international.
Xi did not mention the debt in his speech, although Beijing is the biggest bilateral lender to many African states, but the 2024-2027 action plan included terms for repayment moratoriums and called for the establishment of an African rating agency to bring about “a new rating culture”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the summit that African countries’ inadequate access to debt relief and lack of resources are causing social unrest, as he proposed new reforms to the international financial architecture.
Shared Future or Debt Diplomacy?
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit outlined a three-year programme for China and each African state, except Eswatini, which maintains ties with Taiwan.
In addition to 30 infrastructure connectivity projects, Xi said, “China is ready to launch 30 clean energy projects in Africa,” offering to cooperate on nuclear technology and tackle power shortages that are delaying industrialization efforts.
But the Chinese leader did not repeat his promise for the Asian giant to buy $300 billion worth of African goods at the 2021 forum in Dakar, instead pledging only to expand unilateral market access.
Analysts say Beijing’s phytosanitary rules for market access are too strict, making China unable to deliver on that promise.
But Africa is getting more financial help from China. Last year, China lent Africa $4.61 billion, the first annual increase since 2016.
“I am here to see how we can improve our relations with China,” Princess Dugba, Sierra Leone’s minister of fisheries and marine resources, said on the sidelines of the summit.
“China is providing us a fishing port, which is the first of its kind,” he said.
Xi Jinping also said that China is “willing to support the development of the African Continental Free Trade Area and deepen logistics and financial cooperation to benefit intra-regional development in Africa.”
China has been accused of having a “hidden agenda” in its “debt diplomacy”. Countries working with China often face threats of unsustainable debt through unsustainable financing, which India has highlighted at the UN, leading to a “vicious cycle of debt trap”.
($1=7.0976 Chinese Yuan Renminbi)
