A Chinese commerce ministry official asserted on Thursday that writing off onerous African debts to Beijing under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic would be “not simple nor effective.”
The article, appearing in the Communist Party newspaper the Global Times, appeared to be a response to calls this week for wealthy nations to suspend Africa’s debt payments until the end of the year, as the world faces a possible financial recession due to economic shutdowns caused by the Wuhan coronavirus.
Indebted African countries have been hit especially hard by the current economic slowdown “due to plummeting oil and commodity prices and weaker currencies, which ramp up external debt servicing costs,” according to a Reuters report on Monday. Some African nations may see as many as 20 million jobs lost as a result of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the Group of 20 (G20) economies, including China, the United States, India, and others, offered to suspend Africa’s debt payments until the end of 2020.
However, on Thursday, Ministry of Commerce official Song Wei – identified officially as “deputy director at the Ministry of Commerce’s Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation” – wrote that China should not write off African nations’ debt as international financial institutions have recommended, claiming such measures were “not effective.”
“The whole world is facing mounting pressure on pandemic prevention and consequent economic contraction as the novel [Wuhan] coronavirus ripples across the planet,” Song said. “China, as a creditor of some African countries, has been called upon to offer debt relief which actually is not simple nor effective.”
China is not just a creditor to “some” African countries; it is the single largest creditor to the African continent.
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9 comments:
This is a checkmate opportunity for China. Why would they pass on the opportunity to take ownership of all the African people’s possessions?
Ditto for the US. It seems this is the perfect opportunity for China to merge the US Democrat Party into its own Communist Party. Checkmate!
I see this as the beginning of a new Chino-Centric World.
Over the past 12 years China has bankrupted COMEX by trading its worthless US Dollars for gold. It has emptied out a Fort Knox and that is why there can be no audit of Fort Knox.
China is in the drivers’s seat.
Not the corrupt US who only knows how to print its currency into oblivion.
They published the genetic sequence in January to the world. They shut down and entire territory/ city .
I am sorry that we were not paying attention.
They definitely are not perfect but neither are we
Talk all you want about White Colonialism in Africa.
Ohhhhhhh China you BETTER write off all country's $$$ money they owe BECAUSE YOU OWE EVERYONE ESPECIALLY USA.
You can Bet, they won't write off ANY of America's debt either !!! FACT
20 + Trillion !!! Hell No
Agree i bought masks and slowly started purchasing back in early January. You people need stop relying on your government.
Where does this mind state come from? Diseases come from everywhere. We going to start suing people now that give us the chickenpox? Crazy people. If its found that this was a biological weapon we go to war with them not sue them. If this was a natural occurrence nothing we can do. Get over it.
Message to China Embassy - Just as your communist government has Nationalized many foreign industries, the United States can Nationalize your American debt. Warning - don't try poking the Tiger or you will be swallowed up. Just to point it out to you because you are so arrogant - your worst enemy is not the United States, it's Your Own People!
Jon E. Jrr.
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