By John Ikani
China’s President Xi Jinping has promised to send to Africa some one billion Covid vaccine doses to help close the “vaccination gap”.
He has also pledged to encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $10bn in Africa across the next three years.
Xi made the pledges on Monday in a speech via video link at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Dakar, Senegal.
Vaccination rates in Africa are low compared to the rest of the world, with many states at the mercy of foreign donations due to the lack of local production facilities and prohibitive costs of mass purchases.
According to the Chinese President, 600 million doses would be donations and 400 million doses would be provided through other means, such as joint production by Chinese companies and relevant African countries.
“We must continue to fight together against COVID,” Mr Xi told the summit, adding that China would send about 1,500 medical workers to Africa.
China’s total imports from Africa, one of its key sources of crude oil and mineral supply, will reach $300bn in the next three years, Xi said, adding that the two sides would cooperate in areas such as health, digital innovation, trade promotion and green development.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Dakar, China invests heavily in Africa, and is the continent’s largest trading partner with direct trade worth over $200 billion in 2019.
Beijing has also donated millions of doses of its home-produced Sinopharm vaccine to poor African countries since the start of the pandemic.
Critics charge that China’s largesse forms part of a diplomatic offensive, however.
At the forum, Senegalese Economy Minister Amadou Hott told attendees that a shift in the commercial relationship with China was needed – away from projects financed by African governments taking on large debts.
“We need more equity investment,” he said, pushing for Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in local companies.
Beijing has often faced accusations of “debt-trap diplomacy” due to the scale of its lending to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, using its creditor status to extract diplomatic and commercial concessions.
Blinken, in his recent trip to Africa, made reference to the accusations without naming China explicitly, saying in an address in Nigeria that Africans have been “wary of the strings” that often come with foreign engagement”. China rejects the charges.
