With an aim to help Africa break those three development bottleneck issues to accelerate industrialization and agricultural modernization, during the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit in December 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China-Africa Ten Major Cooperation Plans with a commitment of 60 billion US dollars of financial support in the next 3 years. That is the good example by China for the international community. Up to now, the total direct investment and financing from China to Africa has already exceeded 100 billion US dollars.

Journalists visit China Mall in Johannesburg (photo by Wang Lei)

The Chinese government encourages its businesses to make investment in Africa. We support the Chinese financial institutions to provide financial support to Africa for infrastructure development, industrial parks, special economic zones, and production projects in accordance with the market principle and concept of intensive development. The concept of intensive development means to integrate infrastructure and industry planning and development in tandem. Railways, roads and other infrastructures are built to promote and drive industry development in the surrounding areas, which in return could sustain the infrastructure, so as to ensure the profitability of the projects and accordingly to ensure the debt repayment capacity of the recipient countries. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway and its industry parks along the railway supporting each other is a very good example of the new concept of intensive development. Seeing is believing. I encourage American friends to visit Ethiopia and see it themselves before smearing China.

The American friends are worried about Africa's debt crisis on the lips. But they have no willingness to issue loans to support Africa’s development, or to encourage their investors to Africa. As the major investor in the continent, China of course follows closely Africa’s possible debt risks. And we also care about the safety of our investment. That is why we have been very serious with the feasibility study of each and every investment and financing project, making sure that the project is profitable, sustainable, and that the recipient is able to service debt. Giving out free loans without thinking about debt repayment and reasonable profits, any financial institutions in the world will go bankrupt. China is no exception. Two days ago, Kenyan Foreign Minister dismissed the concerns over mounting Chinese loans, saying that, Kenya’s engagement with Beijing serves the country’s interest and adds value to the people. Djiboutian Foreign Minister Youssouf also said that, no country can develop itself without having strong infrastructure. And China is from that perspective, a very good partner. The burden of debt of Djibouti is so far manageable, and the Djiboutian government is not that worried.

Africa needs huge amounts of capital to develop its infrastructure to realize self-sustainable development. China is not a superpower, and cannot take on everything. The American friends are concerned that China is creating a debt crisis in Africa. They say so just to find an excuse for themselves not making financial support to Africa. But fundamentally, what they are worried about is Africa realizing economic independence with China’s support. What they are worried about is to lose control over Africa. It is our sincere hope that the United States as a responsible superpower, could follow China to do the same in Africa and the world, to make its due contribution to truly support Africa’s durable peace and self-sustainable development.

Who are really looting Africa’s resources and exploiting the African people? People with clear eyes can tell the truth.

Some people accuse that China invests in Africa only to loot and exploit its natural resources. This is exactly talking through one’s hat. They forgot to look at themselves in the mirror. As we all know, China is Ethiopia’s largest foreign investor. With double digit growth over the past ten years, today Ethiopia is Africa’s largest textile exporter to the United States. Does Ethiopia export oil or mineral resources? Obviously not. So the American friends are not interested, and of course the Ethiopia could not seek for American investment and loan support. While the Chinese government encourages companies to build their factories in Africa, to help create local jobs, tax revenue, and foreign exchange, some country is busy asking its companies to relocate their overseas factories back home.

China is a new comer in Africa. Africa’s oil and mineral resources have long been explored and exploited, controlled or monopolized by western companies.

Some people are very good at selecting things to remember. They have forgotten that, Nigeria, as the largest crude oil producer in Africa, remains the largest importer of refined oil up to this day. Nigeria’s oil resources is almost entirely controlled and monopolized by western companies. They pump up the crude oil at a very cheap price from Nigeria back to their countries, refine it there, and sell the refined oil back to Nigeria and Africa at a very high price. We don’t know when such unjust and unfair situations to Africa will be addressed.

Chad is another important African oil producer that has long been controlled and monopolized by western companies. They pump up the crude oil, but till now have not refined it locally. To the contrary, at the turn of the new century, a Chinese company won the oil exploitation right of 1 million tons per year. The Chinese company has set up the first oil refinery in Chad to refine all the extracted oil locally, to create jobs for the locals, to add and leave value to the locals, and to help Chad realize national energy security.

Who has been looting Africa’s natural resources and who has been exploiting the African people? Any person with clear mind and basic IQ will have the correct answer.

Who is using Africa for corruption? The peoples of the world all understand.

Some people claim that large amounts of Chinese development assistance in Africa is aiding corruption in African governments. This is an attempt to use the issue of corruption, a public enemy of all countries, to undermine China-Africa mutually beneficial cooperation.

This is my fourth posting to Africa. On behalf of my government, I have signed many agreements on bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation projects with African leaders. I can speak loudly and responsibly that all development assistance from the Chinese government to Africa goes directly to project contractors, to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness of the capital. Both I as the Chinese Ambassador and any African government officials cannot see or touch even a cent of those fund.

That is why China is able to deliver large numbers of tangible, visible and beneficial projects to the African people with less amount of development assistance to Africa than that of the developed countries. Today, the infrastructures financed and built by China can be found everywhere across the African continent, including highways, railways, airports, seaports, power plant, hospitals, schools, office buildings, parliamentary buildings, and stadiums.

We are very proud that Chinese development assistance to Africa has not only contributed to Africa’s economic and social development, but also brought convenience to the American friends to visit or invest in Africa.

Some governments have huge budget from their own parliaments in the name of development assistance to Africa. But regrettably, it is very hard for the African people to see, still less to enjoy the outcomes of their assistance as infrastructure projects such as highways, railways, schools, parliamentary, office buildings or stadiums. The reality shows that, some countries keep making empty promise, but no delivery. Those governments have taken the taxpayers' money far exceeds the amount of China’s, but have no visible projects in Africa.

What is the true meaning of corruption? Who is using Africa for corruption? The peoples of the world have the answer.

To fully tap into local labor resources and create local jobs in Africa is the inevitable choice of Chinese investors.

Poverty is the common enemy of the African people and the peoples of the world. We strongly believe that the right to work, the right to housing, the right to food, the right to hospital, and the right to school are the basic human rights for all peoples. Therefore, to grow economy to create jobs is the master key to address poverty and human rights.

But jobs only come from investors for productions and visitors as tourists. I’m very proud that after over four decades of reform and opening up, China has become the second largest economy in the world and Africa’s major investor and source of tourists. More and more Chinese companies are setting up their businesses in Africa, bringing with them over 100 billion US dollars of investment, transferring their skills and know-hows to the locals, creating millions of local jobs, and improving the basic human rights of tens of thousands of households in Africa.

The two Chinese projects you have visited today are both invested by the private sector. This is just a small reflection of the Chinese investment on the whole African continent. The Yilida Blanket Manufacturing Plant was invested by a Chinese with just about ten Chinese management personnel and engineers. But it has created 460-560 direct local jobs. The China Mall Group was invested by a Chinese couple in 2003. The Group now has 3 China Malls in three cities, creating over 600 shops, creating over 3000 local jobs and many small and medium business.

Apart from these two, I have also visited some Chinese investment projects such Hisense Plant in Cape Town, which produces TVs and refrigerators. The plant has about 60 Chinese engineers and management personnel, but creates over 700 direct local jobs, and nearly 3000 indirect jobs, making over 200 million US dollars of foreign exchange per year. The Chinese private invested shoe manufacturer Huajian in Ethiopia has created 3000 plus local jobs. Their products are exported to the United States, allowing US consumers to enjoy the cheapest but high quality shoes.

As we understand why the companies from the United States, Japan and Europe have relocated their plants and factories to China, just because the salary of the labors was too high in their own countries. With the cost of production going up, profit goes down. To make bigger profits, they had no choice but to invest in China to benefit from China’s low cost of labors. Unlike the western countries, when the Chinese government encourages businesses to invest in Africa, our goal is not only to tap into Africa’s abundant labour resources, but also to dovetail Chinese and African development industries, so as to help Africa realize self-sustainable development. That is why Africa welcomes and looks forward to Chinese investment.

It is so easy to know that, any investor or politician with basic IQ may understand it is important to make good use of the low labor cost when investing in Africa, but not to bring their own expensive labor to Africa.

To my conclusion, to support Africa to realize durable peace and self-sustainable development serves the common interests of Africa, China and the peoples of the world. It is also the common goal and responsibility of the international community. China is willing to work closely with all countries to uphold the principle of planning together, building together and sharing together, to jointly promote a community of shared future for mankind as proposed by President Xi Jinping, so as to empower the African people to promote development and share common prosperity with the peoples of the world.

It is our sincere hope that certain superpower could show an updated and broad mind and take concrete steps to honor its commitment and fulfill its due responsibilities. Don’t forget, what Africa needs is capital and actions, not lectures. Don’t forget, Africa is mature and wise enough to understand who is the true and reliable partner for their self-sustainable development. Please, don’t get in self-embarrassment again.