AFP Videos – France
Xi Jinping welcomes 20 leaders for major China-Africa summit
Chinese President Xi Jinping received in Beijing on Wednesday evening with great pomp about twenty African leaders for the opening banquet of a major China-Africa summit, against a backdrop of promises of cooperation in infrastructure, energy and education. The world’s second-largest economy, China is the African continent’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $167.8 billion (€151.8 billion) in the first half of 2024, according to Chinese state media. Over the past two decades, it has sent hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers to Africa to build these major projects, and gained privileged access to Africa’s vast natural resources, including copper, gold and lithium. A total of 25 leaders of African countries are in the Chinese capital or have confirmed their presence at the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, according to an AFP count. The summit is the largest diplomatic meeting held in Beijing since the Covid-19 pandemic. It is due to end on Friday. It formally began on Wednesday when Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcomed their guests for a handshake, a group photo and a sumptuous dinner under the gilded Palace of the People – a colossal building located on the edge of the famous Tiananmen Square. The Chinese president will deliver a speech on Thursday morning at the opening ceremony of the summit. Xi Jinping is “a true friend of Africa”, assured the Chinese official press this week, insisting on the links between Beijing and the continent which have reached “new heights” since he came to power. – Chinese loans – Loans from Chinese public banks have thus made it possible to finance numerous infrastructures intended to boost African growth (railways, ports, roads, etc.). They have also raised questions because they have contributed to increasing the debt of some countries. The Chinese president has already held one-on-one talks in recent days with a dozen African leaders who have arrived in Beijing, according to a count by Chinese media. During his meeting Tuesday with Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria – one of the African countries that has borrowed the most from China -, Xi Jinping called for greater cooperation in the “development of infrastructure, energy and natural resources”, reported the state agency Xinhua. And when he received his counterpart from Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa the same day, he promised collaboration in terms of “investment, trade, infrastructure, natural resources” and in other areas. He also gave him his support in the face of the “illegal sanctions” imposed by the United States, which accuses the Zimbabwean government of corruption and human rights violations. But the amount of loans granted by China to African countries last year – $4.61 billion (€4.2 billion) – is down sharply from peaks of nearly $30 billion (€27 billion) in 2016. Analysts say the current economic slowdown in China is pushing Beijing to scale back its investments in Africa. – “Geopolitical interest” – This week’s summit also comes amid growing competition between the United States and China in Africa, over political influence and access to natural resources. “Deepening economic engagement with Africa across the board” remains one of China’s goals at the forum, Zainab Usman, director of the Africa program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP. “In specific areas, even if increased engagement doesn’t make economic sense, it will be driven by geopolitical reasons,” she said. One goal could also be to reduce the growing trade imbalance between China and Africa, including by increasing the Asian giant’s imports of African agricultural products and processed minerals, says Usman. “Meeting these African demands is in China’s geopolitical interest, in order to keep (African countries) on its side in the standoff with the United States,” she says.bur-oho-ehl/ka-ehl/thm
Related News :