China is making efforts to assist African countries in addressing their debt issues through development, said a senior official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a press briefing hosted by the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA) in Beijing on Wednesday.
At the "Linjia No.7 Salon" event, Du Xiaohui, director-general of the Department of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized that the root of the debt problems stems from development challenges.
Drawing on China's reform and opening up experience, he stressed that development remains the only viable pathway to resolving such problems.
"China is the largest developing country. Through China's reform and opening up process, we've become fully aware that the debt issue is essentially a development issue. Development requires financing, and financing will generate debt. Debt is not terrible; debt is part of development. This concept must be upheld. When a debt issue occurs, there is only one way to solve it, which is development," Du said.
"The current debt problems in Africa, or the difficulties in financing and high financing costs, are a result from the selfish monetary policies of a certain big country. China itself has been under great development pressure due to the so-called reciprocal tariffs of this country. Under such circumstances, why are we still working to [help African countries] reduce and relieve debts? Why are we still offering zero tariff access? Because we know that when we encounter difficulties, we can overcome them only by working together with our African brothers and the Global South. This is the original intention of China's unilateral beneficiary policy for Africa to help solve the debt issue together," he said.
China helps African countries solve debt issue through development: official
