China has said that it is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt. A top Chinese official said this today during a major summit in Beijing as the government pushes back against criticism it is loading the continent with an unsustainable burden.
President Xi Jinping pledged sixty billion dollars to African nations at Monday’s opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015.
A wave of African nations seeking to restructure their debt with China has served as a reality check for Beijing’s ties with the continent, though most of its countries still see Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies.
China’s special envoy for Africa, Xu Jinghu, told a news conference today that a closer look at these African countries that are heavily in debt shows that China is not their main creditor.
She added that China will use feasibility studies to select projects that help African countries achieve sustainable development and steer clear of debt or financial woes.
Join our twitter community :