Africa should not be an arena for competition between world powers, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Wednesday as he opened a new headquarters for a pan-African health body at the start of a five-country tour of Africa.
Qin visited the African Union facilities in Addis Ababa, including the new headquarters of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. China financed the construction of the complex, as it has previously done for the headquarters of the AU itself, also based in the Ethiopian capital.
China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for more than a decade. It is competing for influence with the United States, which hosted leaders from 49 African countries last month, as well as former colonial powers such as Britain and France.
“Africa should be a great arena for international cooperation, not a arena for competition from major countries,” Qin said at a news conference with AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki.
A trusted aide to President Xi Jinping and a former ambassador to the United States, Qin was appointed foreign minister last month. His visit marks the 33rd consecutive year that Africa has been the destination of the Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas tour in the calendar year.
Qin met Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other government officials on Tuesday, and during the visit announced a partial cancellation of Ethiopia’s debt to China, though neither side provided details. Ethiopia has borrowed $13.7 billion from China since 2000 and has been looking to restructure its debt with foreign lenders since 2021.
Qin will also visit Egypt, Angola, Benin and Gabon over the next week. Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the African Center for Strategic Studies, said the choice of countries reflects the diversity of China’s interests in Africa.
China has strong security ties with Egypt and Angola. Visiting Benin and Gabon shows the ambition to expand Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure-building campaign, long focused mainly on the Indian Ocean region of West Africa, he told Voice of America radio.
