China on Monday rolled out the pink carpet for leaders from throughout Africa, together with President Bola Tinubu, searching for to deepen ties with the resource-rich continent it has furnished with billions in loans for infrastructure and growth.
Beijing has mentioned this week’s China-Africa discussion board might be its largest diplomatic occasion for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic, with greater than a dozen leaders and delegations anticipated.
China has despatched a whole bunch of 1000’s of staff to Africa to construct its megaprojects whereas tapping the continent’s huge pure assets together with copper, gold, lithium and uncommon earth minerals.
Its huge loans to the continent have funded infrastructure but additionally stoked controversy by saddling international locations with big money owed.
China, the world’s quantity two financial system, is Africa’s largest buying and selling accomplice, with bilateral commerce hitting $167.8 billion within the first half of this yr, in line with Chinese language state media.
Safety is tight throughout Beijing, with roads and bus stops bedecked with banners declaring China and the continent are “becoming a member of fingers for a brighter future”.
Among the many leaders within the capital is South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who arrived early Monday for a four-day go to throughout which he may also go to the southern tech powerhouse metropolis of Shenzhen.
Commerce between China and South Africa soared to $38.8 billion in 2023, in line with the South African presidency.
Ramaphosa is ready to participate in a welcoming ceremony Monday at Beijing’s ornate Nice Corridor of Folks and lay a wreath “in honour of Chinese language revolutionaries” in Tiananmen Sq., his workplace mentioned.
The 2 international locations will signal plenty of agreements targeted on “enhancing financial cooperation and the implementation of technical cooperation”, it added.
– Increasing affect –
On Monday, President Xi Jinping met with Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, state information company Xinhua mentioned.
China has a big presence within the DRC, the place it’s eager on tapping huge pure assets together with copper, gold, lithium and uncommon earth minerals.
However it has grappled with safety points within the nation — in July, native sources informed AFP {that a} militia assault on a mining web site in gold-rich Ituri province killed no less than 4 Chinese language nationals.
Leaders of Djibouti — dwelling to China’s first abroad army base — in addition to Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Mali and others, additionally arrived in Beijing on Sunday and Monday.
Beijing’s loans to African nations final yr have been their highest in 5 years, analysis by the Chinese language Loans to Africa Database discovered. High debtors have been Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.
However the information confirmed that loans have been effectively down in comparison with highs in 2016, after they totalled nearly $30 billion.
And the loans have been more and more to native banks, researchers mentioned, serving to to keep away from “exposing Chinese language collectors to credit score dangers related to these international locations”.
Analysts say an financial slowdown in China has made Beijing more and more reluctant to shell out large sums.
This week’s summit comes as African leaders eye mounting nice energy competitors between the US and China over assets and affect on the continent.
Washington has warned in opposition to what it sees as Beijing’s malign affect.
In 2022, the White Home mentioned China sought to “advance its personal slender industrial and geopolitical pursuits (and) undermine transparency and openness”.
AFP
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