“At last week’s China-Africa Summit, we unfortunately saw more empty promises and tired platitudes from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)... The CCP needs to move beyond vague public statements and start to fully and transparently implement the DSSI in accordance with its G20 commitments,” he said in reference to the undertaking to offer temporary debt relief to poor countries by the G20 grouping of the world’s biggest economies.
Data released by the World Bank shows that EAC countries could save up to $1 billion in temporary debt relief offered by rich countries, freeing up resources needed to help finance emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Pompeo has repeatedly accused China of overloading Africa with unsustainable debt, claims that the world’s second-biggest economy has strongly denied.
Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to cancel interest-free debt owed by “relevant” African countries as part of Beijing’s move to help the continent stay afloat during the pandemic.
“Within the FOCAC framework, China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020,” President Xi told his audience, among them South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta and Senegal’s Macky Sall, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.