Published on : 23/08/2022 – 16:07
On the occasion of a coordination meeting of China-Africa cooperation on August 18, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recalled China’s commitments on the continent, and praised the areas of cooperation with the Africa such as health, energy or food security. The Minister also announced the cancellation of 23 loans contracted by 17 countries on the continent.
These loans had expired at the end of 2021. China decided to simply cancel them. No precision is delivered, neither on the amounts, nor regarding the countries concerned by this cancellation of debts.
China had already committed itself in the past to debt restructuring operations, in the Congo, Angola and more recently in Zambia. Faced with the inability of states to reimburse, it is a symbolic gesture on the part of Beijing, believes researcher Thierry Vircoulon.
These restructuring operations might be worth a few billion, a real breath of fresh air for the States concerned by these debts. A modest sum for China, however, compared to its overall investments on the continent. Total claims are valued at $150 billion since the early 2000s.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, traveling to Africa, insisted on this ” debt trap » ; 30% of African public debt belongs to China, which has now become one of the continent’s biggest creditors, particularly in countries like Djibouti, Guinea and Cameroon.
However, a recent study points to the fact that Western private creditors are taking an increasingly large share. A matter of concern, according to some analysts.
Others consider the political threat of these private creditors less important than that of China, which can find political leverage there.
We have seen growing criticism of the trade deficit between China and the African continent and Beijing has responded to this in recent years by proposing to create special economic zones which would be industrialization zones where Chinese industries would install that would allow the development of the African industrial sector. (…) But what we see in reality is that often these economic zones are not very industrializing and then there are a lot of implementation problems.
Thierry Vircoulon, researcher at the Africa Center of the French Institute of International Relations
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