Le Pays De France - African leaders in Beijing eyeing big loans and investment

China has expanded ties with African nations in the past decade, furnishing them with billions in loans that have helped build infrastructure but also sometimes stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.

China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects, while tapping the continent's vast natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.

Beijing has said this week's China-Africa forum will be its largest diplomatic event since the Covid-19 pandemic, with leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and other nations confirmed to attend and dozens of delegations expected.

African countries were "looking to tap the opportunities in China for growth", Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, told AFP.

China, the world's number two economy, is Africa's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese state media.

Beijing's loans to African nations last year were their highest in five years, research by the Chinese Loans to Africa Database found. Top borrowers were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

But analysts said an economic slowdown in China has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to shell out big sums.

China has also resisted offering debt relief, even as some African nations have struggled to repay their loans -- in some cases being forced to slash spending on vital public services.

Since the last China-Africa forum six years ago, "the world experienced a lot of changes, including Covid, geopolitical tension and now these economic challenges", Tang Xiaoyang of Beijing's Tsinghua University told AFP.

The "old model" of loans for "large infrastructure and very rapid industrialization" is simply no longer feasible, he said.

- Stalled megaprojects -

The continent is a key node in Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project and central pillar of Xi Jinping's bid to expand China's clout overseas.

The BRI has channelled much-needed investment to African countries for projects like railways, ports and hydroelectric plants.

But critics charge Beijing with saddling nations with debt and funding infrastructure projects that damage the environment.

One controversial project in Kenya, a $5 billion railway -- built with finance from Exim Bank of China -- connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa.

But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialised, as both countries struggled to repay BRI debts.

Kenya's President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI projects.

The country now owes China more than $8 billion.

Recent deadly protests in Kenya were triggered by the government's need "to service its debt burden to international creditors, including China", said Alex Vines, head of the Africa Programme at London's Chatham House.

In light of such events, Vines and other analysts expect African leaders at this week's forum to seek not only more Chinese investment but also more favourable loans.

- 'Lack leverage' -

In central Africa, Western and Chinese firms are racing to secure access to rare minerals.

The continent has rich deposits of manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium -- crucial for renewable energy technology.

The Moanda region of Gabon alone contains as much as a quarter of known global reserves of manganese, and South Africa accounts for 37 percent of global output of the metal.

Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70 percent of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50 percent.

Mounting geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, which are clashing over everything from the status of self-ruled Taiwan to trade, also weigh on Africa.

Washington has warned against what it sees as Beijing's malign influence.

In 2022, the White House said China sought to "advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests (and) undermine transparency and openness".

Beijing insists it does not want a new cold war with Washington but rather seeks "win-win" cooperation, promoting development while profiting from boosted trade.

"We do not just give aid, give them help," Tsinghua University's Tang said.

"We are just partners with you while you are developing. We are also benefiting from it."

But analysts fear African nations could be forced to pick sides.

"African countries lack leverage against China," Development Reimagined's Eguegu said.

"Some people... think you can use the US to balance China," he said. "You cannot."

(R.Dupont--LPdF)