China to give LDCs including 33 African countries zero-tariff treatment

President Xi Jinping announced at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing on Wednesday that China would unilaterally give all least developing countries (LDCs) zero-tariff market access for all products, making China the first major economy to take such a step. This move is part of a wide-ranging action plan agreed at the forum, which includes over 50 billion dollars of investment by China in African development initiatives over the next three years.

The FOCAC summit has been taking place amidst a backdrop of increasingly hysterical propaganda about the China-Africa relationship in the Western media, particularly in relation to China’s infrastructure investment. China is painted as engaging in exploitative, neocolonial practices, but this does not chime with reality. Indeed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on the sidelines of the FOCAC summit that he did not believe Chinese investments in Africa were pushing the continent into a ‘debt trap’ but were, rather, part of a mutually beneficial relationship.

A few facts that Washington’s stenographers routinely ignore:

• China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for 15 years in a row
• China provides finance for desperately-needed infrastructure projects, with interest rates typically half those of Western lenders, and with longer repayment periods
• China’s investment is focused on meeting Africa’s needs, particularly around energy, transport, telecommunications and green development
• With Chinese support, Ethiopia in 2015 celebrated the opening of the first metro train system in sub-Saharan Africa
• The African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa was funded by the Chinese government as a gift to the AU
• The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) was built with Chinese support
• While there are endless scare stories about Chinese companies only employing Chinese workers, research shows that over 75 percent of employees in Chinese companies in Africa are local
• A key reason for the popularity of Chinese financing is that it comes without strings attached, unlike organisations like the IMF, with its demands for austerity, privatisation and deregulation
• 52 of the 54 African countries have signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative
• China does not interfere in the internal affairs of African countries, and regards respect for other countries’ sovereignty as an inviolable principle
• China-Africa energy cooperation offers the opportunity for Africa to leapfrog the fossil fuel age and move straight to renewable energy
• Tens of thousands of African students attend universities in China, which offers more university scholarships to African students than the leading western governments combined
• China’s approach is markedly different to that of the West. At the 2018 FOCAC summit, Xi Jinping outlined China’s “Five No” approach to its relations with Africa: 1) No interference into African countries’ pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions. 2) No interference in African countries’ internal affairs. 3) No imposition of China’s will on African countries. 4) No attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa. 5) No seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa.
• China is helping Africa to break out of an underdevelopment that was forced on it by Western colonialism and imperialism. As Liberia’s former Minister of Public Works W Gyude Moore said, “China has built more infrastructure in Africa in two decades than the West has in centuries”.

So when the West accuses of China of neo-colonialism in Africa, it is really just engaging in projection and slander.

The following article is republished from Global Times.