The Free

China forgives 23 loans for 17 African countries, expands ‘win-win’ trade and infrastructure projects

“While Beijing has a repeated history of forgiving loans like this, Western governments have made baseless, politically motivated accusations that China uses “debt-trap diplomacy” in the Global South”.

By Benjamin Norton at multipolarista.com August 20 2022 via thefreeonline

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2018

China is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries, after already cancelling $3.4 billion and restructuring $15 billion of debt from 2000-2019. Beijing pledged more infrastructure projects and offered favorable trade deals in a “win-win” model of “mutually beneficial cooperation.”

The Chinese government has announced that it is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African nations, while pledging to deepen its collaboration with the continent.

This is in addition to China’s cancellation of more than $3.4 billion in debt and restructuring of around $15 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019.

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‘Debt Trap’ is a US financed Propaganda Myth

The United States has turned Africa into a battleground in its new cold war on China and Russia.

And Washington has weaponized dubious claims of Chinese “debt traps” to try to demonize Beijing for its substantial infrastructure projects on the continent.

For its part, China has pushed back against the US new cold war.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a meeting with leaders from various African countries and the African Union on August 18.

In the conference, Wang condemned the West’s “zero-sum Cold War mentality.” He instead proposed a model based on “multi-party cooperation” with Africa that brings “win-win results” for all sides.

China forgives debt for 17 African nations

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/china-forgives-debt-for-17-african-nations/news-story/28ab7f45440142634ff8efd0360b2fec

“China will waive the 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries that had matured by the end of 2021,” Mr Wang said at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation according to a statement.

He pledged that China would continue to actively support and participate in the construction of major infrastructure projects in Africa through financing, investment and assistance.

“We will also continue to increase imports from Africa, support the greater development of Africa’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and expand co-operation in emerging industries such as the digital economy, health, green and low-carbon sectors.”

Mr Wang also pledged that China would provide food assistance to the 17 African nations.

Critics argue China is involved “debt trap diplomacy”, alleging the country issues loans in order to eventually secure strategic international assets.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been criticised of ‘debt trap diplomacy’. Picture: AFP

South Asian country Sri Lanka granted China Merchants Ports Holdings a 99-year lease on the $US1.5 billion ($A2 billion) Chinese-built deepwater Hambantota Port in 2017 after falling deep into debt.

Kenya, South Africa and Uganda are among numerous African states that have borrowed heavily from Chinese lenders.

According to World Bank data from 2020 cited by Forbes, the African nations with the highest external debt to China as a percentage of gross national income are Djibouti (43 per cent), Angola (41 per cent) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (29 per cent).

African countries have also enthusiastically joined China’s transcontinental Belt and Road Initiative to build port, rail and land infrastructure, Beijing’s modern-day Silk Road.

Australia scrapped a deal between Victoria and China for Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure in 2021, calling it “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”.

But the concept of a Chinese “debt trap” has also been criticised, with a study in 2020 finding China had restructured or refinanced about $21 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019. The study also noted there was no evidence of “asset seizures”and that Chinese lenders had not used courts to enforce payments, or applied penalty interest rates to distressed borrowers.

Meanwhile, Adalberto Costa Junior, a presidential candidate in Angola, has vowed to examine the county’s debt if he is elected.

Angola owes about $90 billion, which will cost it about $8 billion each year in amortisation, according to Bloomberg.

“The amount of real foreign debt is not known,” Mr Junior said in an interview on the weekend.

Around $27 billion of Angola’s total debt is owed to China, with the funds used to build roads, hospitals and railway links.

Mr Junior warned that any borrowings not linked to infrastructure projects could be renegotiated.

The German regime presents its Vaccine Passport Project as Pfizer touts new ‘recipe’.. Eng /Esp

Editorial office August 2022 via thefreeonline

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach revealed plans to add a new function to the CWA (Corona Warn App) computer application, the vaccine passport.

The vaccination status of each person would be recognizable by the color of their QR code and each color grants different rights to citizens.

The government’s plan is to exempt only recently vaccinated people from the obligation to wear a mask. It does not matter how many doses they have received.

If this passport is launched, people who have received three doses will have the same rights as those who have not recently received any. That equality will give them the same rights, or rather the same absence of rights, as those who have refused booster injections.

Although Lauterbach does not believe that people get vaccinated every three months to be exempt from the requirement to wear a mask, he does not give up on his idea and continues to defend the new law.

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Apr 14, 2022Earlier this year, Dr. Anthony Fauci called Pfizer’s decision to start human trials on an omicron-targeted COVID-19 vaccine a “prudent move.” “It makes sense to think in terms of at least having ready an omicron-specific boost,” Fauci told MSNBC in January. MORE: COVID cases predicted to rise in coming weeks because of new BA.2 variant