Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Africa this week, and he’s sounding the alarm about the increasingly apparent risks caused by Chinese investment on the continent:“We are not in any way attempting to keep Chinese investment dollars out of Africa; they are badly needed. However, we think it’s important than African countries carefully consider the terms of those investments.”Tillerson said China rarely hires local workers for infrastructure projects, offers few job training programs for locals, and he warned that the terms of Chinese loans are often so bad that the sovereignty of African countries can come under threat in the event of default. Joshua Meservey is a senior policy analyst for Africa at the Heritage Foundation:“About a third of these debts or loans are collateralized with natural resources. So that means either that they have to pay back in natural resources or, in the event of a default, they might have to surrender control of a strategic asset.”Making matters worse, Meservey said there’s increasing evidence China may be targeting financially-unsteady African countries in a cynical play to attain strategic assets through defaults. And if you can’t, the Chinese have you over a barrel.’”

Source: Ethiopian News March 08, 2018 18:22 UTC