Guide
Recently, scholars from the Institute of World Economics and Politics/Global Strategy Think Tank of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences went to Africa for field research, and pointed out that in recent years, in order to undermine the construction of the "Belt and Road" and obstruct the development of China-Africa relations, the United States and the West have put forward a number of lip service initiatives on cooperation with Africa, and threw out theories such as "neo-colonialism" and "debt trap" to smear China's economic cooperation with Africa. Such remarks are groundless and seriously inconsistent with the facts, and have also been denied and even criticized by relevant African countries. China and Africa are a community of common destiny in the new era, and no noise or constraint can stop the progress of China-Africa cooperation.
Author: Zou Zhibo, Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Director of the National Global Strategy Think Tank
In recent years, as China has achieved remarkable results in Africa's "Belt and Road" construction and China-Africa relations have made great progress, some people in the United States and the West have begun to sit still, using their media in Africa and around the world to create public opinion on China's so-called "neo-colonialism", "debt trap", "resource plunder" and "environmental destruction" in Africa, and at the same time put forward some "grand" infrastructure plans to hedge China's "Belt and Road" construction.
Among these smeared public opinions in the United States and the West, the "China debt trap theory" is the most prominent. But what the truth is, let's take the example of Kenya in East Africa and Nigeria in West Africa, two African giants, to see the real situation of their debt.
Of Kenya's total debt of $70 billion, only $7 billion is debt to China, accounting for only about 10% of Kenya's debt, which is used for large-scale infrastructure projects in Kenya, including the Mongolian railway and the Latin American highway. And most of the country's debt is owed to Western creditors.
Kenya's presidents, ministers and think tanks have denied claims of a "Chinese debt trap." Kagovanga, director of Kenya's Africa Policy Institute, said that these Western rumors should not be allowed to undermine the overall situation of Chinese investment and China-Kenya cooperation in Kenya.
Image source: Xinhua News Agency
At the end of March 2023, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics released a debt report showing that multilateral debt accounts for about two-thirds of its external debt, while debt to China accounts for only 9.5% of the country's external debt.
Several reports by international institutions and specialized research areas show that African countries' external debt mainly comes from bonds held by Western private creditors. For example, according to the World Bank, multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors hold nearly three-quarters of the $696 billion in external debt of the 49 African countries for which data are available.
The African Development Bank's "2023 Africa Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook Report" released in January this year pointed out that the Fed's repeated aggressive interest rate hikes last year caused a sharp depreciation of African countries' currencies against the US dollar, greatly increasing the debt service burden of African countries, such as Ghana's currency, the cedi, which depreciated by one-third against the US dollar last year. The report also highlights that China's contribution to debt relief under the G20 Debt Relief Initiative has exceeded that of G7 countries combined. A new study by the Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Central Africa also shows that China contributes as much as 63% of debt relief.
Image source: Xinhua News Agency
The United States and other Western countries have also launched a number of similar infrastructure plans and initiatives in Africa. But so far, most of them have been thunderous and rainy, and some have even failed.
For example, the "Blue Dot Network" program launched by the United States, Japan and Australia in 2019 is no longer paid attention to and mentioned. In 2021, the United States proposed a global infrastructure plan called the "Build Back a Better World" (B3W) initiative at the G7 summit, and the following year proposed the "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership" (PGII) plan, and the amount of investment proposed has been shrinking from $40 trillion to only $600 billion. Even so, in the first year of the B3W program, there was only $6 million in landing funding.
The reason why the United States and the West pay lip service is because they have more than enough and lack of strength. After all, both the United States and the West have long passed the stage of industrialization, no longer retain strong strength in infrastructure and manufacturing, and it is difficult to help Africa on the development problems most needed. The reason why the United States and the West put forward these "grand" plans is only to hedge and restrain the "Belt and Road" initiative that China has implemented and achieved great results in the vast number of developing countries in Africa.
Another fact in response to the smear remarks of the United States and the West against China is that China's construction projects in Africa and China-Africa cooperation have provided tangible help for Africa's economic development and improvement of people's livelihood. Over the years, especially since the implementation of the "Belt and Road" initiative, Chinese enterprises have used various funds to build or upgrade more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of highways, nearly 1,000 bridges and nearly 100 ports in Africa, and have also built a large number of large-scale power facilities, hospitals, schools and other livelihood projects.
Image source: Xinhua News Agency
Since 2009, China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years. In 2020, China-Africa trade volume reached 21% of Africa's foreign trade volume, China-Africa trade in 2021 increased by 35% year-on-year, and China-Africa trade volume reached 282 billion US dollars in 2022. China's trade structure with Africa has been continuously optimized, and the technical content of exports to Africa has increased significantly, with mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products accounting for more than 50% of exports to Africa.
Facts speak louder than words, and field research and reports of relevant international organizations show that these claims by the United States and the West that China has created a "debt trap" are not only groundless and seriously inconsistent with the facts, but also denied and even criticized by the African side of the parties concerned. The intention of the United States and the West is to obstruct China's investment in Africa and the development of China-Africa relations through public opinion manipulation and hedging actions.
However, China-Africa relations in the new era have a solid political foundation, the common goal of achieving national development, the great potential for complementary advantages, and the bright prospect of win-win cooperation.
Image source: China Daily
Responsible Editor | Song Ping Xin Xin
Edit | ZHANG Zhao
Interns Zhuang Shuhan and Tian Xinlu also contributed
Pay attention to the WeChat public account "China Daily China Watch Think Tank" to directly reach the previous selection