China has moved heaven and earth to help African countries fight Covid-19

[xizhimen]

China has moved heaven and earth to help African countries fight Covid-19​

By Opinion

18h ago

A virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Solidarity Summit against Covid-19 was co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the AU. Picture: Elmond Jiyane/GCIS

Helmo Preuss

Although there were isolated outbreaks of xenophobic attacks against Africans in China due to the fake news that Africans were spreading the Covid-19 virus in the early part of 2020, China has since then moved heaven and earth to help Africans combat the virus and provide much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to health-care workers in African countries.


As the so-called “factory of the world”, China has supplied more PPE and sanitising material to African countries than any other country.

To strengthen the ties between Africa and China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on official visits to Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Botswana and the Seychelles from January 4 to 9.

The visit to African countries at the start of the year is a tradition that goes back to January 1991, and is aimed at consolidating the solidarity between African people and Chinese people.


It is also a striking example of how highly the Chinese value their relationship with Africa.

This year’s visit, in particular, is aimed at supporting African countries in economic recovery, debt relief and the fight against the epidemic, as well as promoting the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

The effort to fight the pandemic goes back to the early part of 2020.

Dr Kerrigan McCarthy, of the Division of Public Health, Surveillance and Response from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said on February 24 that South Africa had been lucky in that no cases had then yet been diagnosed in our country, which allowed the government to proactively prepare for a possible outbreak.

She was addressing the first conference on the coronavirus in South Africa, which was a two-day event held in Pretoria.

She said a national response team had been convened on January 24, the day after Chinese health authorities placed the city of Wuhan, where the virus originated, under quarantine.

This was six days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

On that day, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize declared a Public Health Emergency in South Africa and activated the Emergency Operations Centre. An Incident Management Team was then constituted the following day, and has met daily since then.

The first case in South Africa was diagnosed on March 5, 2020, and currently the number of cases here has exceeded 1 million.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were in early communication with each other, and jointly initiated the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against Covid-19.

In the early stages of the pandemic, when China was the epicentre, South Africa provided valuable moral and material support, and many South African enterprises made generous donations to China.

In return, China donated more than 6 million masks and hundreds of thousands of detection reagents, as well as ventilators, PPE suits and other anti-pandemic materials worth millions of rand.

More importantly, they shared their knowledge on how to prevent infection and how to treat patients who had to be admitted to hospital.

Shared knowledge and shared resources are the most powerful weapons against the virus.

Both China and South Africa firmly uphold multilateralism and support the WHO in its role as the leading authority in co-ordinating the global anti-pandemic efforts, and mobilising the international community to share resources and knowledge.

China’s participation in the WHOled Covax alliance shows China’s concrete commitment to the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

China has also replenished pandemic consumables such as nucleic acid extraction reagents to South Africa and strengthened co-operation in vaccine research and development.

In addition to co-operation in the health arena, the two countries are strengthening their co-operation in other sectors such as the digital economy, 5G, big data, artificial intelligence and clean and renewable energy technologies.

Due to the restrictions imposed on international travel and meetings, Chinese and South African leaders have been forced to reach consensus on the way forward to benefit their people via a series of virtual meetings, such as the BRICS leaders’ meeting and the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

China has moved heaven and earth to help African countries fight Covid-19

China has supplied more PPE and sanitising material to African countries than any other country, and more importantly, they shared their knowledge on how to deal with the pandemic.

www.iol.co.za

 

[GoatsMilk]

From what i understand the Chinese really exploit Africa. Their practices are pretty nasty over there.

also all of these "pro-china" threads reek of communist style propaganda.

I mean you got a country that is putting Muslims in concentration camps and its pretending that China is heaven on earth.

 

[GoatsMilk]

China basically puts these poor states into massive debt and then use that obligation to cheat Africa out of her resources.

 

[GoatsMilk]

Another good example of how china pushes non-stop positive propaganda.

 

[GoatsMilk]

Why is China being accused of sterilising Uighur women?

Researchers and activists slam an official tweet that points out how Chinese policies led to a decline in the minority population.

www.trtworld.com

I actually find it in poor taste to spam this forum with chinese propaganda when your nation is active in genocide.

Maybe the propaganda works for the chinese, maybe the chinese are happy to defend all evils, but for everyone else its clear as day as to how bad the chinese regime is.

 

[xizhimen]

From what i understand the Chinese really exploit Africa. Their practices are pretty nasty over there.

also all of these "pro-china" threads reek of communist style propaganda.

I mean you got a country that is putting Muslims in concentration camps and its pretending that China is heaven on earth.

Your posts are reeking with China bashing western propaganda, western global domination is over and China finished it.

China ranks first in debt deferrals to poorest countries
Xinhua, November 21, 2020

China ranked first among the Group of 20 (G20) members in terms of debt deferral amounts under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) for the poorest countries, Finance Minister Liu Kun said.

The country's official bilateral creditors, the China International Development Cooperation Agency and the Export-Import Bank of China, have suspended a total of 1.353 billion U.S. dollars of debt service payments, benefiting 23 countries, Liu said in an interview published Friday on the ministry's website.

The China Development Bank, as a commercial creditor, has signed agreements with DSSI beneficiaries involving 748 million dollars by the end of September, Liu said.

The G20 launched the DSSI in April to address the short-term liquidity needs of low-income countries as the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a great blow to the global economy and added to the risks of debt vulnerabilities.

The debt service payments due from May 1 to the end of the year owed by the most impoverished countries will be suspended, according to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meeting in April.

The debt suspension was extended by another six months until June 30, 2021, the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors decided in October.

China ranks first in debt deferrals to poorest countries - China.org.cn

 

[xizhimen]

China basically puts these poor states into massive debt and then use that obligation to cheat Africa out of her resources.

By given them a better alternative, your western global domination is over, China killed it.

China, World’s Biggest Creditor, Delays Debt Repayments for 77 Nations
June 10, 2020 06:57 PM

WASHINGTON - China’s announcement this week to suspend debt repayments for 77 low-income countries as part of the G-20’s debt relief program gives Beijing a political boost with foreign allies at a time when China is under scrutiny for its role in the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Exactly how much of a political boost remains unclear. When Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told reporters in Beijing on Monday that Beijing is implementing a moratorium on debt payments to 77 developing countries and regions, he did not offer details, including the beneficiaries, the amount of money involved or terms of the repayment suspension.

China is currently the largest single creditor in the world, with outstanding loans to other countries in excess of 6% of global GDP. A recent study published by the Harvard Business Review found that among the 50 developing countries with the highest levels of debt, about 15% of total obligations were owed to China.

The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a huge blow to the global economy, and China’s own finances have not been spared. In late May, at the country’s National People’s Congress, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned that governments at all levels must tighten budgets and the central government should take the lead.

China's official unemployment rate in April was 6%, slightly higher than that in March. However, economists estimate China's real unemployment rate to be 20.5% in April, with at least 70 million unemployed.

Li Keqiang said in response to a reporter's question at the two sessions on May 28 that the average annual income in China is around $4,250 (30,000 yuan) but 600 million people earn only $140 (1,000 yuan) a month. He also said that in a medium-sized city, it might be difficult to find rent on that salary.

Notably, officials appear so uncertain about the economy that for the first time since 1990, Beijing did not set a growth target for this year's economy.

While recent data suggest that China is emerging from an economic slowdown, the recovery won’t be easy. And on China’s tightly controlled internet, some users are questioning whether the government should prioritize other countries' interests over its own.

How long will repayments be suspended?

In the short term, creditors suspending debt repayments would help to avoid bad debts, according to Weiping Qin, an economist in the United States.

Qin told VOA : “On the debtor side, if their economies are in great trouble, if they have no way to repay the debts now, and if they do not reach an agreement with their creditors, it will easily cause bad debts to have a negative impact on both sides. Moreover, the deterioration will lead to a greater crisis. I believe that the creditors and debtors can reach an understanding and delay for, let’s say, about half a year, for both sides to find a practical solution, to at least temporarily avoid further deterioration of the situation."

Qin pointed out that debt repayment suspension can only be a short-term arrangement, with the purpose being to give debtor countries a period of time to get out of economic difficulties. If such short-term arrangements do not help the domestic economies of debtor countries improve, that could signal danger for Beijing’s balance sheets.

Specifically in China's case, he believes that the Chinese government is now in a very bad financial position because of its foreign lending. In the event of a debt default in which debtor countries are unable to meet the debt repayment, China would bear huge financial losses as well as pressure from its own public.

Analysts say the suspension of debt repayments is a needed move to avoid a pile of bad debt. In light of heightened tensions with the West, China must maintain its relations with countries in Africa and Latin America.

According to the Associated Press’s interview with Ghana’s finance minister in April, Africa’s debt to China is over $145 billion. About $8 billion in payments are required this year.

Dajun Zhong, an economic observer in Beijing, sees the payment suspension as China’s helpless option.

He told VOA: “[China] can’t get the debt payment, some countries are too poor to pay back, what can you do otherwise? The Chinese government is just giving it a name, but they are actually bad debts."

Zhong said he believes that the payment suspension is for diplomatic benefits. He said China will have to pay a heavy price if it wants to win as many political allies as possible internationally, even if they are the poor countries, while the heavy cost will eventually be passed on to the Chinese people.

https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-p...st-creditor-delays-debt-repayments-77-nations

 

[xizhimen]

Another good example of how china pushes non-stop positive propaganda.

A well known China basher, I can find dozens of foreign expats videos living in China countering him, he is just a loser joke.

 

[xizhimen]

Why is China being accused of sterilising Uighur women?

Researchers and activists slam an official tweet that points out how Chinese policies led to a decline in the minority population.

www.trtworld.com

I actually find it in poor taste to spam this forum with chinese propaganda when your nation is active in genocide.

Maybe the propaganda works for the chinese, maybe the chinese are happy to defend all evils, but for everyone else its clear as day as to how bad the chinese regime is.

Stay on topic and refrain from spamming , if you like to talk about another topic, start another thread.

 

[GoatsMilk]

i just don't fall for cheap communist style propaganda.

the communist style is to deny every truth a difference of opinion or thought is not allowed for the communists. Well we are not in China buddy.

 

[xizhimen]

i just don't fall for cheap communist style propaganda.

the communist style is to deny every truth a difference of opinion or thought is not allowed for the communists. Well we are not in China buddy.

I just don't fall for cheap western style propaganda.
Brainwashed westerners just buy whatever crap their media feed them.

 

[Oublious]

Poor countries turning in more poor, they give them 5 and take 10 from them. Sucking all ther raw materials and let the world see that hey make buildings and roads .Let the poor countries paying Chinese companies do work in ther country, Chinese people managing the projects.

The western imperialism was only sucking ther resources but China level the imperialism one stage up, left them with debts...

 

[xizhimen]

The western imperialism was only sucking ther resources but China level the imperialism one stage up, left them with debts...

Is western imperialism really that nice as you depict? They plunder global resources, lands, colonize local population, sold the locals into slavery, armed different local sects and plunge numerous countries into wars, even today, currently, many wars around the world are legacies left by western imperialism and colonialism, you better learn a bit of history before talking through your hat.