The visit of Wang Yi follows that of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, partly intended to counter the growing influence of Beijing on the continent.
Le Monde
Thursday, January 6, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, on tour on the continent, swept the reproaches addressed to his country concerning the appropriations contracted by African countries. Beijing, he suggested, does not “trap” his partners in debt. “This is a speech that has been created by those who do not want to see the development of Africa,” he told reporters in Mombasa, Kenya, where China finances the construction of ‘a new terminal within the largest port of East Africa: “If there is a trap, it is that of poverty and underdevelopment.”
Mr. Wang’s visit follows little that in November the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken – a journey partly intended to counter the growing influence of China in Africa. In Washington, the spokesman for the American diplomacy, Ned Price, has also been able to praise the “partnerships” offered by the Americans to African countries “on the basis of mutual opportunities, mutual respect”, contrasting according to him with Chinese projects. “We do not ask our partners to choose between the United States and other countries, including the People’s Republic of China. We do not want to impose on them to choose, but we want to give them choices,” a-T- He tells journalists.
Beijing is the first commercial partner of the African continent, with direct exchanges of more than $ 200 billion in 2019 (more than 180 billion euros), according to Chinese official figures. But China is often accused of using its creditor status to snatch diplomatic and commercial concessions, axidizing the ability of many African states to assume debts contracted.
A railway line of $ 5 billion
China has thus become Kenya’s second creditor after the World Bank and has funded expensive infrastructure projects in a country where debt levels have exploded in recent years. Asked by AFP, the Economic and Geopolitical Analyst Alikhan Satchu pointed that Kenya was facing high levels of interest to finance investments that do not “generate feedback in the near future”.
In Mombasa, the construction of the new terminal represents an investment of $ 353 million. Beijing has also funded the most expensive infrastructure since the independence of Kenya: a railway line that cost $ 5 billion. During a visit to Kenya in January 2020, Mr. Wang described this line as a “stallion” of the “new roads of silk”, a Chinese initiative that finances infrastructure projects.
The Chinese minister met Thursday with President Kenyatta, after meeting several Kenyan ministers and signed agreements in the areas of trade, health, safety, or wind technology transfers. “The visit is a testimony of the deepening relations between the two countries,” said Kenyan Foreign Minister, Raychelle Omamo, at the end of the meeting,
a special envoy for The Horn of Africa
Thursday, Mr. Wang also announced the appointment of a Chinese Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, marking the willingness of his country to become diplomatically in this region in various conflicts. “We will continue to play an even greater role for the peace and stability of the region,” he said in Mandarin, translated by an interpreter. His announcement coincides with the visit to Ethiopia from the outgoing American emissary for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, who met Thursday in Addis Ababa Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed, whose country has been shaken for over a year. by a war opposing the federal army to the rebels of the Tiger (North).
Wednesday, Eritrea, Mr. Wang expressed the opposition of China to US sanctions against this extremely closed country and interference “in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of democracy and human rights” . Washington imposed penalties against Asmara last year due to the involvement of its army in the tiger conflict, marked by massacres of civilians and mass rapes. After Kenya, Mr. Wang went to the Archipelago of the Comoros.