Chinese President Hu Jintao began his second African tour in a year on Wednesday to boost ties with a continent that has many of the oil and commodity reserves the Asian giant needs for its ballooning economy.
Hu touched down in Cameroon late on Tuesday — the first time a Chinese president has visited the Central African state — and was due to meet Cameroon’s President Paul Biya on Wednesday morning for talks.
Cameroon was the first stop of an eight-nation tour that will also take the Chinese leader to Liberia, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Zambia and Mozambique.
China’s ambassador to Cameroon Wang Sifa said Hu, accompanied by Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and other senior policy makers, aimed to ”to raise our bilateral friendship and cooperation ties to a new level”.
”I am sure the visit will bear abundant fruits in our bilateral relations,” Wang said in an interview published on Tuesday in the official Cameroon Tribune newspaper.
The two presidents are due to sign a series of cooperation accords whose details have not been published yet.
Previous visits to Africa by Hu and other Chinese officials have yielded debt cancellations, pledges to build hospitals and stadiums, and business deals over supplies of oil and raw materials to fuel China’s fast-growing economy.
After his meeting with Biya, Hu was due to visit a hospital already being built by China in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde.
China’s trade with Cameroon, which has reserves of oil, bauxite and iron ore, doubled to $338-million in the first 11 months of 2006.
At a special China-Africa summit in Beijing in November, Hu offered $5-billion in loans and credit to Africa and pledged to double aid, keen to demonstrate that China’s ties with Africa went beyond thirst for its reserves of oil and raw materials.
Trade between China and Africa jumped 40% to $55,5-billion in 2006, with the balance of trade $2,1-billion in Africa’s favour, according to Chinese Trade Ministry data published by the Chinese news agency Xinhua this week.
But some Africans warn poor African countries may ultimately lose from expanding trade with China unless they carefully examine bilateral deals and protect their weak manufacturing sectors from cheap Chinese clothes and household goods.
This means that Hu may face a more guarded reception than in the past.
Some Western leaders and analysts criticise China for offering trade, aid and investment with no strings attached, saying it undermines efforts by some Western donors to promote democracy and human rights through conditional aid.
Hu’s trip will also take him to Sudan, where civil war in the western Darfur region has killed an estimated 200 000 people and forced 2,5-million more from their homes in violence Washington has labelled genocide.
China has resisted sanctions and other pressure on Sudan, from which it buys crude oil, saying they will not help to solve the conflict in Darfur. — Reuters