{"id":179822,"date":"2018-09-03T04:19:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T08:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179822"},"modified":"2018-09-03T04:19:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T08:19:33","slug":"chinas-xi-promotes-belt-road-africa-growth-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/03\/chinas-xi-promotes-belt-road-africa-growth-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s Xi promotes &#8216;Belt and Road&#8217; as Africa growth tool"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_176342\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176342\" style=\"width: 674px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/674px-Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176342\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/674px-Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_cropped.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"674\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/674px-Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_cropped.jpg 674w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/674px-Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_cropped-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/674px-Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_cropped-15x20.jpg 15w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 674px) 100vw, 674px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-176342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cChina&#8217;s investment in Africa comes with no political strings attached.\u201d (File <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=69948764\">Photo<\/a> By Prime Minister&#8217;s Office, Government of India\/Wikimedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>BEIJING \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday promoted Beijing&#8217;s initiative to build ports and other infrastructure to African leaders as a tool for \u201ccommon prosperity\u201d in a world facing challenges from trade protectionism.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to businesspeople ahead of a conference with dozens of African leaders, Xi said the \u201cBelt and Road\u201d initiative will expand markets. He tried to mollify concern Beijing wants to build strategic influence, promising Chinese investment comes with \u201cno political strings attached.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Economic growth lacks robust drive,\u201d said Xi in a speech. \u201cChina-Africa co-operation under the BRI is a way to common prosperity that brings benefits to both our peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>African and other Asian leaders have welcomed \u201cBelt and Road\u201d but some projects have prompted complaints about debt and other problems. The initiative involves hundreds of projects, most of them built by Chinese contractors and financed by loans from Chinese state-owned banks, across an arc of 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation brings together leaders from China and more than 50 African countries. Dozens of African leaders met with Xi ahead of the conference.<\/p>\n<p>Xi made no mention of the political and debt concerns that overshadow some \u201cBelt and Road\u201d projects. But Chinese officials previously have rejected accusations that projects leave host countries too deeply indebted to Chinese lenders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChina&#8217;s investment in Africa comes with no political strings attached,\u201d said Xi. \u201cChina does not interfere in Africa&#8217;s internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIJING \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday promoted Beijing&#8217;s initiative to build ports and other infrastructure to African leaders &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":176342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}