President Hu Jintao, apparently seeking to ease concerns over China’s investment drive in Africa, said on Wednesday that Beijing’s business interests would not hurt the continent.
Speaking to a packed audience at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, Hu frequently used the word ”trust” to outline his vision of China’s economic ties with Africa.
The Chinese president on Tuesday signed economic and agricultural deals in SA as part of his tour of Africa, where the Asian giant’s growing influence has been met with some unease.
”The Chinese are a peace-loving nation,” Hu said in his address on Wednesday. ”We live in cooperation and harmony among nations and we hold that the strong and the rich should not bully the weak and the poor,” he added.
While many African governments have welcomed closer ties with Beijing, analysts say the region’s poor countries must guard its weak manufacturing sectors against cheaper Chinese imports.
”China has never imposed its will or unequal practices on other countries and will never do so in the future,” he said.
”It will certainly not do anything harmful to the interests of Africa and its people,” he added.
Hu’s most controversial stop on his eight-nation African tour has been Sudan, where China’s ”no strings attached” aid policy has angered many in the West who want Beijing to use its economic muscle to persuade Khartoum to end rights abuses in its Darfur region.
Asked about Sudan, Hu said he hoped Khartoum would implement a peace package it had agreed with the African Union and the United Nations.
After meeting the Chinese leader on Tuesday, South African President Thabo Mbeki said he and Hu were working for a speedy end to the Darfur crisis based on a United Nations Security Council resolution to deploy a 22 500-strong UN peacekeeping force to Darfur.
Khartoum has criticised this as an attempt at Western colonisation. ‒ Reuters