Over the week­end, China pledged another 10 bil­lion dol­lars in con­di­tional loan money to gov­ern­ments across the African con­ti­nent. China says they are mak­ing the pledge to help Africa’s agri­cul­ture and infrastructure.

How­ever, many say the Chi­nese are only mak­ing the loans to improve their power within the con­ti­nent. Human rights advo­cates are con­cerned that China may give the loans to cor­rupt officials.

From this AFP story that we found at Google News, writer Samer al-Atrush attended the Chi­nese announce­ment of the loans.

Wen said the new mea­sures would focus on reduc­ing poverty and assis­tance in infra­struc­ture and agri­cul­ture, while China is also vow­ing to remove tar­iffs on most goods from the least devel­oped African countries.

China’s assis­tant com­merce min­is­ter, Fu Ziy­ing, said on Sun­day that China would build a per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion cen­tre for African products.

It will also set up “three to five mod­ern logis­ti­cal cen­tres to help African entre­pre­neurs to increase logis­ti­cal capac­ity to ship out African prod­ucts,” Fu said.

The pledges have been received with enthu­si­asm by African del­e­ga­tions, but China is fight­ing off accu­sa­tions that it is only inter­ested in Africa for its resources.

An assis­tant for­eign min­is­ter, Zhai Jun, insisted that China was not seek­ing to impose its “hege­mony” in the continent.

China “will not treat Africa in an impe­ri­al­ist way. China will not be point­ing fin­gers or bul­ly­ing African coun­tries,” he said on Sun­day, adding that his coun­try would not “prac­tice colo­nial­ism in African countries.”

Ahead of the launch of a more robust diplo­matic involve­ment in African con­flicts, he denied that China throws a life­line to lead­ers accused of human rights vio­la­tions such as Sudan Pres­i­dent Omar al-Beshir.

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