International scholars and political figures have deplored the false narrative of "China's debt trap," saying China's assistance to Africa has indeed benefited Africa and people on the continent.
Debt trap, a term used by many in the West to describe China's loans to Africa, is a narrative trap imposed on China and Africa.
According to the World Bank's International Debt Statistics, Africans owed 655.6 billion U.S. dollars to external creditors in 2022, and China's public lending accounted for around 10 percent of that.
Data showed that more than 35 percent of that debt is owed to Western banks, asset managers and oil traders. And on average, they charge twice as much interest on their loans.
The Western countries are the ones who have "debt trapped" Africa, said Christopher Mutsvangwa, secretary for Information and Publicity of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front.
"If you wanted capital, and you [would] go to Paris, it's expensive; you try to go to New York, it's even more expensive; you try to go to London, it's through the roof," he said.
Both IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and former World Bank President David Malpass had called on the United Kingdom and the United States to pass legislation to stop private lenders from blocking debt relief agreements for Africa.
"If we did not have access to the possibilities offered by China, the alternative is worse, not better. So, we have to stop the China-bashing narrative because it's really not helpful to Africa," said Carlos Lopes, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from September 2012 to October 2016.
So, why is the West accusing China of debt-trapping Africa? The answer is only one word, that is fear.
"The Chinese government has had a rather active Africa policy dating to the 1950s and being one of the leaders of the so-called 'Third World' at that time. It's development assistance now - not simply as gifts, but as investments - in Africa, in some ways are exporting things that China does better than any place else," said William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and also chairman of the Harvard China Fund.
China-Africa cooperation started soon after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and deepened over the decades. Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, Chinese investments in Africa have helped build or upgrade more than 10,000 km of railways, nearly 100,000 km of highways, almost 1,000 bridges, 100 ports and 66,000 km of power transmission and distribution; furthermore, over 4.5 million jobs were created for Africa.
The West sees China's long-lasting friendship and increasing investment as a way to expand its influence to challenge Western dominance in Africa. And this point of view is out and out wrong.
The West seeks to distract the African countries from projects that can create real progress in Africa and drive a wedge between China and Africa. By trying to undermine China's influence, the West wants to hold on to its dominance in the region without putting in real efforts that benefit Africans.
But the Africans have saw through clearly.
"When you look at the nature of the relationship between Africa and China, it shows that the African people don't buy into such narrative. In fact, when you look more closely, the Chinese loans, or at least the loans that Senegal has taken from China, to build infrastructure, are all at extremely low interest rates. The Thies-Touba highway, for example, was financed over 20 to 22 years. Yet, only 3.5 years into the loan, the construction was completed and the highway began operating. So, for about two to three years, we earned revenue before even starting the loan repayment," said Macky Sall, former Senegalese president.
All in all, China's investment in Africa is not just about financial success, but about creating real value to help Africa develop.
False narrative of 'debt trap' purely Western cover-up for power lust: experts
