Top News: West has ‘sour grapes’: expert

Foreign forces trying to hurt Sino-African ties: analysts

Some Western countries were making irresponsible assumptions to try and break Sino-African ties amid increasing assistance and investment in Africa, Chinese experts said Thursday.

In a Wednesday report on China’s offering a $31.6 million grant to build the headquarters of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States, CNN cited Ian Taylor, a professor in international relations and African political economics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as saying “People will interpret this as a symbolic expression of China’s growing presence in Africa.”

According to a release on its website, the commission signed a memorandum of understanding with China on the grant on March 14, and China is also ready to maintain the building three years after completion.

Increasing cooperation between China and African countries under the South-South cooperation mechanism has led to an increasing Chinese presence in Africa, which has also made some Western countries feel threatened and nervous as they have exerted the dominant influence in the area for a long time, said Li Zhibiao, a research fellow at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Commission President Jean-Claude Brou expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for the grant, saying it was a mark of goodwill and expressed the region’s commitment to foster further cooperation, according to the commission’s release.

China’s assistance to Africa is increasing, especially its financial and commercial loans. China’s investments in Africa have surged with more Chinese companies entering the region, Song Wei, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“China has and will always stick to the principle of bonding no additional conditions and not interfering with African countries’ domestic affairs,” Song said. “China pays respect to African people and would not sacrifice their interests for its own good,” she said.

This is not the first time the Western world pointed fingers at China’s investment in Africa and accused the country of a political agenda for the continent.

In January, the French newspaper Le Monde alleged that Beijing spied on the African Union through computer systems it helped install.

China’s foreign ministry called the report “groundless accusations” and the African Union dismissed it as “baseless.”

It was “sour grapes” for these countries to make irresponsible remarks on China’s presence in Africa or try to disturb SinoAfrican ties, Song said.

Meanwhile, countries which used to be the main supporters of African countries have cut their assistance due to the sluggish growth of the global economy and the mood of antiglobalization, Song said.

In 2017 the Trump administration proposed a 12 percent cut of overall bilateral aid to the Middle East and North Africa, aljazeera.com reported in December.