As the COVID-19 rages around the world taking a heavy toll and joint global efforts are urgently needed to battle the ruthless virus, some Western media outlets and politicians are using the pandemic to taint China’s image and sabotage its international relations by focusing their anti-China campaign on China-Africa relations.
While they hype falsities such as China-Africa relations encountering setbacks amid the pandemic, and China’s so-called economic colonialism leading African countries into a debt trap, Ambassador Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman, the Permanent Representative of the African Union to China, dismissed these claims as groundless in an exclusive interview with the Global Times.
The ambassador told the Global Times that he sometimes thinks “it’s a campaign against Africa-China relations, [and] part of the campaign is the debt [trap]” which some media outlets use to create problems between China and Africa.
Osman said the accusation that China is economically colonizing Africa is “a sort of insult to Africa” and is totally untrue.
The accusation is “part of the rivalry between the international groups. All of them are competing for economic dominance, so they believe that China is trying to dominate the African continent. Maybe they have in mind how they dominated the continent during the last centuries,” said the diplomat.
“We know what we are doing in Africa. And when we come to do business with China, we know why we’re doing this business,” he added.
Western media reports suggest there is anti-China sentiment in Africa due to the coronavirus, but the ambassador said there is no such widespread sentiment, only “individual cases here and there.”
“For instance, in my country – Sudan – we have a very big community of Chinese people and I haven’t heard any single case” of animosity toward Chinese people, he said, noting the safety of Chinese people in Africa is guaranteed.
The media is fond of creating these problems, said Osman. “Even if it’s a quarrel between a Chinese citizen and an African citizen, they will write that China is against Africa or Africa is against China,” he said.
“They don’t show the good things between China and Africa. If they find a Chinese citizen with an African who are getting together and laughing together… this is not a news for them.”
Months ago, Western media also hyped “discrimination” against Africans in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province caused by the epidemic, but the ambassador said the Guangzhou incidents were isolated cases caused by the harsh implementation of epidemic prevention and he knows China is zero tolerant of discrimination.
He noted that the large African community in China is living in a peaceful manner.
“Remarkable” cooperation on COVID-19 fight
Osman said that he “would like to express real thanks and appreciation for all the help extended by China to Africa in order to contain the pandemic.”
While the coronavirus has disrupted normal exchanges between China and Africa, the two sides still remain in close touch. China has sent medical groups to the continent and shared its experiences in containing the virus.
The ambassador said the cooperation between China and Africa in fighting the coronavirus is “definitely remarkable.”
“We are very closely coordinating and [this] is not limited to [China] providing medicines and equipment. There are also Chinese medical teams visiting Africa to exchange views on how to tackle the coronavirus. Chinese scientists are also working with African scientists,” he said.
According to the diplomat, China’s success in containing the virus is an example other countries can learn from. The Africa CDC is supported by China and Chinese scientists are working together with their African counterparts.
Thanks to the policies that the African continent has adopted together with the assistance provided by China, Africa remains one of “the least affected” continents, he said.
As the pandemic has caused problems and challenges for the whole world, Africa is in the process of talking to China about tackling new problems. “We expect we will reach amicable and win-win results,” said the ambassador.
He noted that there still needs to be an assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 and the implementation of the plan of action that has been endorsed by both sides, which he hopes could start soon.
Financing infrastructure projects important for Africa
The ambassador admitted that some difficulties may arise from the cooperation, especially in the financing of big projects but these projects are important for the continent’s long term development.
As the Chinese saying goes, if you want to develop you have to build the road first, and infrastructure is what Africa needs.
“If you want to move from the east Africa to the west Africa, you have to go through maybe Europe or through different ports in order to reach a country which is maybe 1,000 kilometer away,” the ambassador explained.
“We think that we have to have our infrastructure develop so we relied on China to finance the infrastructure projects. For those who are criticizing China for financing this, they never lend Africa to build infrastructure projects. Never!” the diplomat stressed. He added that over the last two decades, only China is willing to finance these big infrastructure projects for Africa.
The financing problem, as he put it, should not be used to smear the cooperation between the two sides and Africa needs infrastructure. Besides, it’s also untrue to accuse China of “taking” Africa’s natural resources when some countries chose to pay their debt with their resources.
While some of those projects are facing repayment difficulties, the ambassador said this is a normal part of the risk of any economic project as he stressed the necessity of conducting feasibility studies to guarantee the repayment of the debt over the long run.
Workers place a banner reading “China Aid” on supplies which are to be loaded into an Air China 747-400 cargo plane at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on April 6 to Accra, Ghana. Photo: cnsphoto
