The United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, on Thursday warned African countries about receiving loan facilities from the Chinese government.
Tillerson advised that loans from China should be weighed carefully and admitted that Washington was not trying to keep Chinese investment away from African continent.
On Tuesday, Tillerson said China “encouraged dependency, utilised corrupt deals and endangered Africa’s natural resources.”
On Thursday, during his first trip to Africa, the US diplomat told a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that African leaders need to carefully consider their agreements with China.
“We are not in any way attempting to keep Chinese ‘dollars’ from Africa. But it is important that African countries carefully consider the terms of those agreements and not forfeit their sovereignty.”
Tillerson added that Chinese investments, “do not bring significant job creation locally” and criticised how the country structures loans to African governments, saying if a government accepts a Chinese loan and “gets into trouble”, it can “lose control of its own infrastructure or its own resources through default.”
He is also billed to visit Nigeria.
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