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Eritrean influencer misinforms about predatory nature of China’s approach in Africa
September 17, 2024
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: CHINA-AFRICA SUMMIT
HEADLINE: Fikrejesus Amahazion, educator and research analyst, Eritrea
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BYLINE: Purity Mwambia
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VIDEO EDITOR: Nik Yarst
SCRIPT EDITORS: Tom Turco
VIDEO SOURCE (S): AFP
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV __ RADIO __
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EDITOR NOTES:))
((AFP African annual summit in China WRAP))
Fifty African leaders, including 20 heads of states, attended an annual summit in China’s capital, Beijing, seeking quicker financial solutions to the growing debt crisis, Reuters reported.
The heads of the African nations facing economic and financial crisis due to their debt to China — Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia — also participated in the meeting.
Addressing the forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping claimed that ‘’the China-Africa relationship is now at its best in history,” pledging to invest nearly $51 billion and create a million new jobs across Africa in the next three years.
Yet Beijing failed to provide the highly sought after debt relief to the African nations.
((AFP Pro-China experts like Fikrejesus Amahazion SOT))
Pro-China experts like Fikrejesus Amahazion, an educator and research analyst at the Eritrean Center for Strategic Studies in Asmara, dispute the allegations, claiming that the West, including the United States, “target” China with “malicious propaganda and slander under the guise of concern for Africa.’’
((Web screen shoot China Says))
Amahazion told China Says, a state media company that focuses on China's foreign affairs, [[ https://x.com/China_says ]] that Beijing is out to help Africa fight poverty.
“China and its positive constructive relationship with Africa has delivered myriad tangible benefits to both sides,” he said.
That is misleading.
((AFP cobalt mines child workers WRAP))
Through its “debt trap diplomacy,” China became the major shareholder controlling most of Africa’s natural resources, infrastructure and other assets.
Beijing-owned businesses in Africa practice the worst forms of child labor, fund violent insurgency, sustain corruption, illegal trade and money laundering.
Amahazion failed to mention that at least 40,000 children, some as young as six, are forced to work in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are 80% owned by Chinese government companies.
The U.S. Labor Department said in a 2023 report that the DRC practices the “worst forms of child labor,” especially in the mining industry.
((AFP Zambian ZNBC TV company Promo))
In 2018, when the Zambian government turned to China for a $40,000 loan to upgrade state broadcaster ZNBC, Chinese StarTimes, which has close links to the Chinese government, was awarded 60% shares in exchange for the loan.
The Zambian government now owns only 40% of ZNBC.
((AFP cobalt mines child workers WRAP))
Last July, JCHX Mining, a Shanghai-listed mining services and contracting company, acquired 80% ownership of Lubambe Mine in Copperbelt, the largest underground mine in Zambia, Zambian government owns only 20%
Kenya, with $ 6.7 billion Chinese debt, leads the list of African nations indebted to China, facing a financial and economic crisis due to the Chinese loan burden.
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