China hits at West for turning African continent into arena for global competition

Qin Gang is making his first overseas trip as China’s foreign minister. Photo: Kyodo

NAIROBI, Kenya - Qin Gang -China’s Foreign Minister has condemned the West for turning the African continent into an arena for competition that only benefits them.

“The West has turned Africa into an arena for competition instead of promoting development and they feel bad when we focus on promoting international cooperation between China and Africa,” Qin said at a news conference with AU Commission chair Moussa Faki.

He was speaking on Wednesday while opening the new headquarters of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention based in Addis Ababa.

The Asian giant -China financed the complex’s construction, as it previously did for the headquarters of the AU itself, also based in the Ethiopian capital.

Most African states have turned to China to grow their infrastructural development and this new bilateral trade relations between the Asian economic giant has created friction between China and the West.

Recently US president hosted 49 African heads of state in a bid to counter Chinese influence in the continent, but there is little to be gained from the talking head workshop.

Qin trusted aide of President Xi Jinping and former ambassador to the United States, Qin was appointed foreign minister last month. His visit marks the 33rd consecutive year that Africa has been the destination of the Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas tour of the calendar year.

Earlier this week Qin met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other government officials, and announced a partial cancellation of Ethiopia’s debt to China during the visit, though neither side provided details. Ethiopia has borrowed $13.7 billion from China since 2000 and has been seeking to restructure its debt to foreign lenders since 2021.

The Chinese foreign minister also visited Egypt, Angola, Benin, and Gabon over the next week. Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the choice of countries reflected China’s diversity of interests in Africa.

China has strong security ties to Egypt and Angola. Visiting Benin and Gabon shows ambitions to expand Beijing’s Belt and Roads infrastructure-building drive – long focused mainly on the Indian Ocean region – into western Africa.

GAROWE ONLINE