Despite its economic woes at home, China has upped its engagement with Africa. On Thursday morning, Xi Jinping pledged 360 billion yuan, or $50.7 billion, in financial aid to the continent over the next three years. The announcement was made at the opening of the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a huge triennial diplomatic summit hosted by China that this year has been bringing together more than 50 African heads of state in Beijing since Wednesday. “Relations between China and Africa have never been better than they are today,” the Chinese regime’s leader said from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The amount is higher than the $40 billion in financial aid announced at the 8th Focac in Dakar in 2021. This new envelope, for the years 2024-2027, underlines the Chinese government’s desire to relaunch its relations with Africa, after the Covid-19 pandemic which effectively interrupted many projects. However, China has not matched the $60 billion that was announced in 2018 at the 7th Focac in Beijing.
