CHINA FORGIVES THE DEBT OF 17 AFRICAN NATIONS
Fourteen years ago, while in the UK studying for my doctorate in Process Systems Engineering, I wrote an article in a student magazine defending China's engagement with the continent of Africa. I tried my best to debunk virulent western media propaganda about China's trade relations with all 54 Africa nations, some of which have no natural resources that could be exploited by the Asian country.
Despite my efforts and that of several others, including American Professor Deborah Bräutigam who has written extensively on the positive nature of China-Africa relations, the hostile media propaganda against China persists in the Western world.
In Africa itself, the media propaganda doesn't work. Several Gallup Polls have shown that Africans generally have a very positive view of China's engagement with the continent.
All talk of “Chinese colonialism” fall on deaf ears because Africans know what real colonialism is all about. In the British and French colonies, Africans fought colonialism mostly peacefully through mass protests and political agitation and won in the 1960s (Algeria was exceptional for the violence that ended French colonial rule).
In nearly all Portuguese colonies, Africans had to pick up weapons and wage war until the Portuguese Colonial Army abruptly abandoned the fight and left in 1975.
As I wrote fourteen years ago, in January 2008, China's relations with Africa goes way beyond government-to-government relations. This relationship has made it possible for African entrepreneurs to forge direct business relations with individual Chinese entrepreneurs as well as private Chinese enterprises. Suddenly, African entrepreneurs can now import sophisticated, but relatively cheap machinery from China. Something they could not do with European/USA-made equipment because of high expense.
Suddenly, African businessmen could secure investments from Chinese businessmen. Something that was difficult with European and American businessmen whose view of Africa is coloured by the simplistic stories and negative imagery of the continent flashed on TV screens across the Western World.
This cartoonish view of Africa is a major reason why European and American telecom companies missed out on the telecommunications revolution (internet and telephony) that swept the continent starting from 1998.
Egyptian-owned, Nigerian-owned, Sudanese-owned and South-African-owned telecom companies benefitted immensely from the revolution which saw the number of telecom subscribers in Africa jump from a paltry 8 million people in Year 2000 to 495 million people in Year 2018.
SIDE BAR : Although relatively late to the revolution, Indian, Gulf Arab and Chinese companies jumped into the fray shortly after the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) measured a 5000% growth in mobile phone acquisition in Africa between 1998 and 2003. Skeptical Euro-American telecom companies remained unmoved, choosing to focus all their efforts in Asia and Latin America. An attitude which I now consider to be a blessing in disguise for our own continent.
Whereas Europeans and Americans see poverty and desolation in Africa, the Chinese national state, individual Chinese entrepreneurs and Chinese companies (both state-owned and private) see lots of commercial opportunities on the continent. Chinese banks provide interest-free loans and credit lines to African entrepreneurs who want to go into business partnerships with their counterparts in China. No country in Europe or North America has ever done this.
The Chinese government uses its gigantic state-owned Civil Engineering Companies to build badly needed infrastructure in resource-rich African countries in exchange for copper, gold, petroleum, etc. Resource-poor African nations trade agricultural produce for infrastructure built by the Chinese State Companies.
Perhaps, naively, Chinese government also provide soft loans to national governments in the continent, many of which are well-known for their excellent skills in financial mismanagement and embezzlement. And is often the case, China is forced to write off these loans. China has forgiven debts so many times in the past.
Just recently, China, yet again, had to write off 23 interest-free loans it had given to 17 African nations, including the incredibly poor Republic of Malawi, which has no natural resources that can be exploited by anybody.
SIDE BAR : By the way, European and American debt-holders often insist that their African debtors pay what they owe, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, we must celebrate Chinese government's magnanimity in forgiving debt and debunk pernicious Western media lies about China trapping Africa in debt.
Like I stated earlier, I wrote a whole magazine article in January 2008 to explain in great details the complexity of China's engagement with Africa. Some of the statistical data cited in the article is now out of date, but most of what I wrote back then is still valid today. You can access that article by clicking on this link.
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