非洲國家望借中國論壇得到更好交易

When African leaders meet next week in Beijing for the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, they’ll strike million- and billion-dollar deals for infrastructure, business, and development projects.

To date, China has made more than $142 billion in loans to African countries, and this year’s forum will deepen those financial ties.

But U.S. politicians are ringing alarms about over-reliance on Chinese financing, while analysts who study Sino-Africa relations see fresh opportunities for African leaders to negotiate deals that better serve their countries’ interests.

On the whole, China accounts for a small portion of Africa’s overall debt burden, according to research published this month by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University。

But Chinese loans often come with preferential terms, including zero-interest financing in some cases. And the projects they’re financing serve a purpose.

Analyists also pointed out that the deals are often opaque, and that can feed corruption.非洲國家領導人下星期在北京參加2018年中非合作論壇時將與中國簽署價值數十億美元的合同，涉及基建、商業和開發項目。迄今爲止，中國已經向非洲國家提供了1420億美元的貸款，今年的論壇將進一步加強中國與非洲的金融聯繫。

美國政界人士對他們所說的非洲過度依賴中國資金提出警告。不過，一些研究中國與非洲關係的分析人士認爲，論壇也提供了新的機會，讓非洲國家領導人談判達成更符合本國利益的協議。

美國約翰霍普金斯大學中國非洲研究項目8月早些時候發表的報告顯示，中國的貸款總體來說只佔非洲總債務中的一小部分。中國的貸款往往帶有優惠條件，包括在某些情況下的零利息。但他們融資的項目是有目的。

一些分析人士指出，這些融資合同往往缺乏透明度，給腐敗造成可乘之機。