TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) -China’s rapidly growing influence on the African continent is worrying the US Secretary of State. He claims that its investments are detrimental, unlike Washington’s “responsible” promotion of the “rule of law.”
The Chinese approach to relations with the African countries “encourages dependency” through the use of “opaque contracts, predatory loan practices, and corrupt deals that mire [the African] nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty,” Rex Tillerson stated in his speech at the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday, ahead of his official trip to Africa. He claimed that China’s approach “stands in stark contrast” to the good intentions of the US.
Even though the top US diplomat admitted that “Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap,” he still argued that it eventually would only lead to “mounting debt” for the African nations and would create only “few, if any, jobs in most countries.” He also claimed that China “endangers Africa’s natural resources and its long-term economic political stability.
”The US approach, on the contrary, “develops sustainable growth that bolsters institutions [and] strengthens rule of law,”Tillerson claimed. He went on to encourage China to join the US in “responsible” development efforts based on “transparent market practices,” thus effectively urging it to switch to a model of relations with the African countries that has been developed and championed by the West.
source:RT