Candid Perspectives From One of China’s Leading Africa Scholars on Beijing’s Role in the African Debt Crisis

There has so far been a total blackout of any Chinese online discussion, media coverage, and comment from government officials on Zambia’s recent debt default. Neither the embassy in Lusaka nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing has commented publicly on the issue.

It’s quite likely that Chinese officials are now preparing a position statement on the issue, which often takes up to a week to complete. We’ll know when that messaging is ready when a Chinese journalist poses a question about it at the foreign ministry’s regular press briefing in Beijing. From there the messaging will make its way out to official media, diplomatic Twitter feeds and so on, with everyone restating the foreign ministry’s position.

Because there’s so little public communication from Chinese stakeholders on these issues, it can be difficult to gain a nuanced understanding of how Chinese policymakers, scholars, and analysts frame issues like what’s going on now in Zambia.

So, it was noteworthy when the Chinese government-funded Africa-China Press Centre published an interview last week with Dr. Zhou Yuyuan, one of China’s leading Africa scholars at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, about how he sees the discourse related to Chinese loans to African countries.

Key Highlights From Zhou Yuyuan’s Interview About Chinese Loans to African Countries

  • DEBT TRAP ACCUSATIONS: “In essence, debt trap narrative is a propaganda tool by some politicians and media to defame China’s development financing. It is a rogue operation by the United States, India and some other countries who are worried that China’s rising influence will diminish their international or regional influence.”
  • CHINA’S APPROACH TO DSSI: “China’s debt relief to African and other countries is at the bilateral level, based on the principle of country-by-country and loan-by-loan. There are some differences between China’s debt relief with international creditors’ collective case-by-case negotiation. So, we can say that the G20’s DSSI is also a mutual learning chance for China and other creditors.”
  • THE IMF IS ALSO TO BLAME: “The lending decision is made from the IMF board of executives in which the West countries have dominating influence, these countries are more likely not to criticize IMF lending, even though they are under-performed lending. More probably, they would seek scapegoats for their failed lending policies and practices.”

Read the full interview on the Africa China Press Centre website.

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The post Candid Perspectives From One of China’s Leading Africa Scholars on Beijing’s Role in the African Debt Crisis appeared first on The China Africa Project.



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