To this end, Xi Jinping said on Thursday that China would further open its market to African agricultural products and that products from most of the world’s poorest countries, including 33 in Africa, would be exempt from all tariffs.
Xi Jinping said China would carry out 30 infrastructure projects across the continent as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, which has been criticized for adding to countries’ debt burdens.
But China also appears to be moving away from such megaprojects, with Xi Jinping promoting 1,000 “small and beautiful” projects across Africa, such as the Addis Ababa streetlights that have transformed the Ethiopian capital’s nightscape.
“The big infrastructure projects that China had invested in were overexposed. They were bad loans,” Vines said. “But the new relationship with China is more clinical and strategic in that respect.”
China, a world leader in green technology, is also eyeing Africa as a potential market for its exports as it faces growing restrictions in the United States and elsewhere.
China, which overtook the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009, has stepped up its overtures to the continent, approving $4.61 billion in loans last year, the first annual increase since 2016. Xi also met with several African leaders last year when he attended a summit in South Africa of the developing bloc known as BRICS.
While President Joe Biden has stressed Africa’s importance to global issues and hosted Kenyan President William Ruto for an official state visit earlier this year, he has not visited the continent since taking office in 2021.
“It all starts with one step, and China extends its hand,” said Abra Kafui Tsolenyanu, a journalist attending the summit from the West African country of Togo.
“So, like all other countries, Togo began to march towards China.”
Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Beijing and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
nbcnews
