非洲国家望借中国论坛得到更好交易

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.非洲国家领导人下星期在北京参加2018年中非合作论坛时将与中国签署价值数十亿美元的合同，涉及基建、商业和开发项目。迄今为止，中国已经向非洲国家提供了1420亿美元的贷款，今年的论坛将进一步加强中国与非洲的金融联系。

美国政界人士对他们所说的非洲过度依赖中国资金提出警告。不过，一些研究中国与非洲关系的分析人士认为，论坛也提供了新的机会，让非洲国家领导人谈判达成更符合本国利益的协议。

美国约翰霍普金斯大学中国非洲研究项目8月早些时候发表的报告显示，中国的贷款总体来说只占非洲总债务中的一小部分。中国的贷款往往带有优惠条件，包括在某些情况下的零利息。但他们融资的项目是有目的。

一些分析人士指出，这些融资合同往往缺乏透明度，给腐败造成可乘之机。