The New York Times.
BEIJING — President Hu Jintao told a gathering of African leaders on Thursday that China
would lend $20 billion to the continent for infrastructure and
agriculture in the next three years, with a new emphasis on grass-roots
projects designed to help the people. The loans outlined by Mr.
Hu doubled the amount offered at the last big conference of African
leaders in China in 2009, a signal that China plans to press ahead with
aid programs in African nations with abundant energy and mineral
resources.
China’s aid to Africa has expanded rapidly in the past decade as the
continent has become a major source of oil from Sudan and Angola, and
copper from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
China has built roads, pipelines, and ports that assist China’s
extractive industries but do less to assist African people, critics say.
The infrastructure is generally built with Chinese labor.
