Chinese officials have offered no specifics as to how they plan to renegotiate the terms of their $152 billion loan portfolio in Africa. Other than a few general statements from Foreign Minister Wang Yi or spokesman Zhao Lijian about Beijing’s participation in the G20 process or that China will deal with each country individually, we still know very little about how they’re approaching this issue.
But the tight-lipped reaction from both China and African governments certainly shouldn’t imply that nothing’s happening. If, amid the growing economic crisis on the continent, debt talks were either stuck or failing, we’d probably hear murmurs in the press.
