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African delegates walk by a screen panel showing a footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Photo: AP

Xi Jinping denies China is spending money on African ‘vanity projects’

Chinese President tells African leaders that infrastructure projects on continent are designed to remove main barriers to development

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that Chinese funds are not for “vanity projects” in Africa but are to build infrastructure that can remove bottlenecks in the continent’s development.

Speaking at a business forum ahead of the start of a once-every-three-years China Africa summit, Xi said: “Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects, but in places where they count the most.”

“Inadequate infrastructure is believed to be the biggest bottleneck to Africa’s development,” he added.

Beijing set to pledge further billions to Africa despite lending fears

Chinese officials say this year’s summit will strengthen Africa’s role in Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative to link China by sea and land through an infrastructure network modelled on the old Silk Road with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Xi said that the plan, which Beijing has pledged US$126 billion for, would help provide more resources and facilities for Africa and would expand shared markets.

Xi was expected to address the opening of the summit later in the day.

From 2000 to 2016, China loaned around US$125 billion to the continent, data from the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Washington’s Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies shows.

It is the most significant contributor to high debt risks in three African countries, the Republic of Congo, Djibouti, and Zambia, CARI said last week.

An African delegate talks with two Chinese women at the summit in Beijing. Photo: AP

In most other nations, traditional donors, multilateral agencies and private creditors held significantly higher portions of debt, it added. The last decade has seen a boom in African Eurobond issuance.

China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, but Xi is likely to use the gathering of African leaders to offer a new round of financing, following a pledge of US$60 billion at the last summit three years ago in South Africa.

Beijing woos eSwatini, but Taiwan’s last African ally stands firm

Ethiopia and Zambia, heavy borrowers from China, have expressed desire to restructure that debt, while bankers believe Angola and the Republic of Congo have already done so, though details are sparse.

But even countries heavily indebted to China say Beijing offers far better terms than Western banks, and that European nations and the United States fail to match its generosity.

Every African country is represented at the business forum apart from eSwatini, self-ruled Taiwan’s last ally on the continent, which has so-far rejected China’s overtures to ditch Taipei and recognise Beijing.

African presidents in attendance include South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Zambia’s Edgar Lungu and Gabon’s Ali Bongo.

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