The Associated Press quotes Africa Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Aubrey Hruby on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to South Africa and China’s funding of large infrastructure projects in various African countries:
Xi may have to spend some time on this trip reassuring African leaders that trade relations will remain strong, said Aubrey Hruby, a Washington D.C.-based economist. The Chinese government is unrivalled in its willingness to fund big infrastructure projects in Africa, although American companies still provide the highest foreign direct investment to African countries, she said.
“It’s a mutually beneficial perspective,” said Hruby. “There are not a lot of entities in the world that would fund African infrastructure the way China has.”