/ 4 February 2007

Hu vows investment, debt relief for Zambia

Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled a package of investment and debt relief as he brought his Africa tour to Zambia, a visit clouded by tensions and high security amid anti-Chinese sentiment. A planned trip to a Chinese-run copper mine in the north was cancelled after reports of demonstrations being planned.

Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled a package of investment and debt relief as he brought his Africa tour to Zambia, a visit clouded by tensions and high security amid anti-Chinese sentiment.

His route from the airport into the capital Lusaka was tightly guarded with hundreds of armed paramilitaries surrounding the pro-opposition University of Zambia in case of student protests.

A planned trip to a Chinese-run copper mine in the north, where a blast in 2005 killed 50 Zambian workers, was cancelled after reports of demonstrations being planned.

Even as Hu and his Zambian opposite number Levy Mwanawasa spoke at a joint news conference on Saturday, the opposition issued a statement reflecting growing discontent about Chinese investors, who are accusing of violating labour laws and usurping mineral riches in the Southern African nation.

Hu’s flagship announcement was a fresh investment of $800-million in the development of copper mines in the ”special economic zone” of Chambeshi in the north.

Mwanawasa hailed the investment as ”a significant economic development for this country”.

Beijing is also cancelling Zambia’s bilateral debt due last year, amounting to about $7,9-million, and will provide $150 000 in cash to help with damage caused by flooding in recent weeks.

Hu, who will meet on Sunday with Zambia’s first president and elder statesman Kenneth Kuanda, is on an eight-nation tour of Africa — his third since coming to power in 2003 — in a bid to increase China’s share of the continent’s oil and energy resources.

Zambia is his fourth stop after Cameroon, Liberia and Sudan. He travels on Monday to Namibia followed by South Africa, Mozambique and the Seychelles.

Other measures announced by Beijing include building schools, hospitals and an agriculture technology centre.

”Forty-two years ago, Zambia was the first Southern African country to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since then, our two peoples have always supported each other,” he said in a statement on his arrival.

Mwanawasa responded in kind at the press conference by reiterating Lusaka’s support for Beijing’s one-China policy. ”It would be good to one day see the reunification of Taiwan to mainland China,” he said.

Chinese investment in Zambia — mainly in mining, textile and construction — has soared in recent years but the list of complaints has also grown.

Many Zambians accuse Chinese companies of paying low wages, ignoring basic safety standards and bringing scores of Chinese workers in to do jobs meant to be reserved for locals.

Last week, workers of the recently closed Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles, the country’s largest textile mill, protested outside the Chinese embassy to complain about poor wages, mistreatment and the temporary closure of the plant because of massive losses.

Despite the protests, Hu was quoted by China’s Xinhua news agency as saying that economic cooperation between China and Africa was mutually beneficial and carried out on an equal footing.

At a banquet hosted by Mwanawasa, he said Chinese investment in areas such as infrastructure was instrumental in helping countries in Africa exploit the potential of their energy resources.

But Guy Scott, general affairs secretary of the opposition Patriotic Front (PF), said China needed to pay heed to local sentiment.

”There are a lot of people who are not happy with China. The president of China should be aware that there is more than one view of China in Zambia.”

PF’s leader Michael Sata, an outspoken critic of growing Chinese influence in the country, has not been invited to attend any public function during Hu’s visit.

Sata threatened last year to expel Chinese traders from Zambia if he were elected president. – Sapa-AFP